I'm in love with a Nut-Job
by Loyal and Just
Summary: When Catherine gets a job at the Jeffersonian she makes some new friends, including a shaggy haired young man with the most adorable puppy dog eyes. This story's going to be a long one so if you're not into that don't read. But I'd really love it if you'd give it a shot. Also I only write pwp. So there will be conflicts as I follow the plot points of the show, but that's about it.
1. My First Day

**Author Note:** So this is my first ever story so I hope you don't judge it too much. I love Zack Addy so much, he is honestly one of my favorite television characters ever to be created, and I just want him to be happy. So.. I created this. This story will be verry long so just hold in there. Hopefully you'll think it's worth it. Regular disclosure, I don't own Bones or any of its characters. And some of my chapters will be set in specific episodes, so that will include direct dialogue from the episodes. I do not own that dialogue earlier. So... I hope you enjoy. Please give feed back. I _will_ take what you have to say into account when writing future chapters.

It was my first day of work at the Jeffersonian. 3 years of schooling in botany with a minor in entomology, and I was finally here. I've dreamed of visiting the Jeffersonian since I was a little girl. Museums have always been one of my happy places. And ever since I learned they had a medical legal lab it has been my dream to work here. But now, seeing it in person. Words cannot describe how beautiful it was to me. I had acquired a job as an intern to the one and only Doctor Jack Hodgins! He really was incredible. He was only 29 and he already had 3 degrees and numerous awards to his name. And now I was getting the honor of working under him! Me, out of all the qualified students who applied. This might actually have been the happiest day of my life.

I walked in and the lab nearly took my breath away. People were bustling all over the place, and I had never seen such advanced tech in my life. The glow of machinery and lights everywhere gave a halo to all. It was better than anything I could've imagined. It was beautiful in every sense of the word. I walked up to Dr. Reed, the only person there I recognized, only because she was the one who interviewed me for my current position.

"Dr. Reed" I said softly from behind her is not to be intrusive. "it's me, Catherine Williams. The new intern."

She turned around with the cold look in her eyes and an equally steely voice "your lab coat is in your locker, lockers are down that hall to the left through the door. Don't bother people unless you absolutely have to. When you get change there is a tub of equipment over there that needs to be cleaned. Do that." then she turned back to her work and proceeded to act as if I was never there.

I took a moment to process the information that was just relayed to me. "Um, when do I get to meet Dr. Hodgins?" She didn't acknowledge me and I took the hint. "Okay.." And I walked away.

I followed her instructions and found my locker simply enough. I put on the light gray lab coat and smiled when I noticed my name "C. Williams" was stitched on the left. I looked in the mirror briefly and noticed the color clashed with my pale complexion but my auburn hair hung down long to the center of my back adding a nice pop of color. I clip my badge to my pocket and walked out. Grabbing the tub I begin to walk in the direction of the platform and looked down at the list in the tub which held specific instructions on how to clean each piece of equipment. Right as I passed the stairway of the platform I felt a thud and drop the tub, scattering the equipment about the floor. I looked up to see the thud was caused by me running into young looking man with shaggy black brown hair. As soon as the sound of the equipment on the ground sounded we were both on the floor scooping the materials back into the tub.

"I am so sorry, I'm such a klutz" I said as I hurried to fix the embarrassment.

"Here let me help" The man stated bending down to grab things before I could stop him.

"No really you don't need t.."

"well from what I've learned about social norms and courtesies I would have to disagree"

I was so worried about cleaning up the mess I'd made I didn't even take the time to register how strange of a statement that was. There was one more petri dish on the floor. The man picked it up handing it to me. "Here" when my hand touched his to take the petri dish I looked up to meet his eyes, they were dark but kind and stared back into mine. I noticed the details of his face for the first time, they were simple and sweet and almost reminded me of a child. Yet there is something about him that attracted me.

"Thanks" I said softly with a smile on the edge of my lips. He smiled back, and we just stood there for a moment. Smiling and staring. Then suddenly I blurted out before my mind could stop my mouth. "well I better go" I said lifting the tub as an indicator of my urgency.

"um, yeah" he muttered as we both stood up and I passed him going in my previous direction. But right before I turned the corner I turned back and found his eyes still fixed on me as I walked away and smiled to myself.

-Zack's POV-

I stared after the mysterious girl as she walked away, but right as she reached the corner she turned and saw me staring. Crap! Now she must think I'm a creep. I immediately turned trying to play it off, scanning my card to the platform and walking up to Angela and Hodgins at the table where they examined our most recent body.

"So what do we have here." I asked Angela looking up to find a stunned facial expression "what?" I asked in confusion.

"I'm sorry, do you think we're ignoring that." Her tone as struck as her facial expression.

"Ignoring what?" I looked to Hodgins for an indicator of what she could be referring to.

"Sorry dude I'm with Angela"

"I have no idea with the two of you are talking about" I said with blatant confusion.

"Um, the girl." She looked at me eyebrows raised in questioning "And the staring?"

"Oh." I paused as my blush set in. "That. Was the staring that noticeable?"

"You two were standing there for almost 2 minutes just staring at each other man" Hodgins pointed out.

"so you think I was being creepy?" I wondered aloud, primarily to myself. Taking note for the future.

"Oh no sweetie. She was totally into you too"

"You really think so!?" I asked admittedly way too excited darting my eyes up.

"Definitely man. So what's her name?"

"I don't know. We didn't talk much and she rushed off."

"Oh sweetie." Angela said with obvious sympathy patting my shoulder. "Okay what you need to do, is next time you see her just to go up to her and ask her name. Let the relationship flow from there."

"That's it?" That seemed far to simple.

"That's it." Angela stated.

-Catherine's POV-

A few hours later I was at my station looking over some test results from the mass spectrometer. When suddenly I felt a light tap on my shoulder from behind and I embarrassingly panicked and almost knocked over my coffee cup on the table as I turned around to meet the gaze of the man from before. I smiled.

"Hello, it's me. From earlier. We bumped into each other." He said matter-of-factly with a nervous tone.

"I remember" I laughed, he was strange. But it was good strange. "So, can I help you with something?" I asked trying to figure out why he would come to find me.

"Actually yes. I was wondering if I could find out your name?"

"Sure!" my smile widened "It's Catherine. Catherine Williams."

"Okay. Thank you" he stated then turned to walk away.

"Wait" I called after him and he turned around looking confused. "Could I possibly get your name?" I asked with a laugh.

"Oh, yes. My name is Zack Addy."

"Well it was nice to meet you Zack" I said with a smile as I began to turn back to my work.

"You as well Catherine" and he was gone. I smiled to myself. I've never been one for flirting and have always been more of the awkward silent type. But I don't know, something about Zack just made it so easy. Maybe it's because he was so obviously nervous to be talking to me. Or maybe it's because I found his childish features unthreatening. Either way I had a feeling this was going to be fun.

-Zack's POV-

Feeling pretty good about my most recent interaction I went straight to Angela's office to tell her about it. I walked in to find her programming something into the Angelator.

"I did it" I asserted triumphantly.

"Did what?" I could tell she wasn't paying attention because she mumbled the response and hadn't yet taken her eyes away from the machine.

"I found out the girls name". Here eyes darted up at my mention of the word girl. Her eyes glimmered with mischief as her smile grew.

"Really?" Her tone excited.

"Yes. Her name is Catherine Williams"

"Nice. So what else did you guys talk about?"

"What do you mean else?"

"What else did you talk about besides asking her name?" She said as if it was obvious. Obviously it was not.

"She asked my name too if that's what you mean." I said getting more confused.

Her smile turned around suddenly "Oh sweetie. You didn't just ask her name and leave did you?" She walked towards me, her tone becoming serious.

"Was I not supposed to? That's what you told me to do?" I asked diffensivley, I didn't understand what the issue was.

"I didn't mean _just_ ask her name. I meant like talk to her, and have a conversation with her." She sighed in disappointment.

"But that's not what you said."

"Wow. You really are clueless huh." She said baffled

"YES." I exclaimed frustrated. "I need a set of clear instructions on this stuff. Why is talking to an attractive female so complicated?" I groaned in annoyance and flopped down on one of Angela's comfy chairs.

"It's okay Zack. This is fixable. Probably... Assuming that she doesn't think you're a creeper just approaching her from nowhere"

"well I thought it went well. She smiled and told me it was nice meeting me."

"Oh, well that's a good sign. That means she thinks your awkwardness is cute. We can work with cute" she smiled to me with a strange look in her eye I could tell I was not going to like whatever plan she was a conceiving in her mind.


	2. Impressive

-Catherine's POV-

The next day I was in the break room enjoying some macaroni and cheese when through the door walked the familiar face of the shaggy haired Zack Addy. I smiled up at him as a greeting when we made eye contact. He smiled awkwardly back and passed me on his way to the fridge and I continue to eat my macaroni. A few minutes later he was in front of me again standing behind the empty chair across table.

"Could I sit here?" He asked shakily.

"Of course" I smiled, and he sat down setting a matching bowl of microwavable mac & cheese on the table. It was silent for a moment as we ate when suddenly he began.

"So I was told that apparently I approached you incorrectly earlier" he rushed "and you might think I'm" he paused "creepy." I looked at him processing his rushed sling of words.

"I don't think your creepy. Who told you that?" I asked alarmed.

"Angela. She said I should not have asked just your name yesterday and that I should have attempted a more in-depth conversation."

"Ah. Well you can tell Angela she was wrong. I quite enjoyed our conversation yesterday" I smiled leaning towards him a bit "but I wouldn't be opposed to a longer conversation. What did you have in mind?" I joked and he looked back at me hopefully.

"well, what do you do here at the Jeffersonian?" He began.

"I'm an intern. So lots of different things. But my main focus is botany what about you?"

"I am Dr. Brennan's assistant/anthropology intern"

"Really!?" I asked a little too excited "Oh that's it! I knew your name sounded familiar. I read it before when reading about cases you guys have done. Well that's impressive. You must be really smart." I smiled trying my best at flirting.

"I am. I'm actually working on 2 doctorates right now."

"Impressive" I repeated "in what fields?"

"Forensic anthropology and Robotics"

"Wow... Impressive" I smiled awkwardly. No matter how hard I tried to be the cool one, I've never been known for being smooth and especially not for knowing what to say.

"You've said that already" he looked at me puzzled scrunching his face to the side "Three times now"

"Well that because you're very impressive" I smiled trying save my awkwardness. I could feel the blush of embarrassment start to rise. Conversation really wasn't one of my strong suites.

"I know" he stated robotically.

"And humble" I laughed sarcastically. That's better. Humor. Humor can save anything.

"I see no point in humility. I have a very high intelligence and am considered impressive by many of my colleagues, superiors and nearly all laymen. That's a fact."

"Wow" I smiled, laughing at his straight response "it's not often that you meet a guy with that much confidence."

"Oh it's not confidence. I just know my strengths. I'm also very aware of my weaknesses. Which mainly included forms of social ineptitude"

"What do you mean social ineptitude? We're interacting socially right now and you see perfectly apt."

"This is true, but I'm only even here because Angela explained a lunch time conversation would be the best way to bond a friendly relationship with you" my eyes widened at the admission, blushing slightly. "I don't usually pick up on social cues and nuances. I also have difficulty interacting with people of lesser intelligence because they say I use to many 'big words'." He stated the final words making quotation marks with his fingers, I was slightly impressed by the action considering his previous statement as not understanding social norms.

"Well you know, some people find social awkwardness endearing" I smiled "some might even say it cute."

"I've been told that before as well, but it's usually followed by a but. Such as 'you're cute, but..'"

"Well I don't know you well enough for a but." I stood up from the table, as I was finished with my meal, and began to walk towards the door bending over when I reached Zack positioning my face by his ear whispering "yet". And with that I walked out of the room feeling pretty proud of myself. That was smooth. Or at least I hope it was. Oh my god, was that just super weird? Am I weird? Was that the wrong move to make. Crap, that was too forward. I probably weirded him out. Now he thinks I'm creepy. Or a slut. Oh no. I'm a creepy slut. Damnit this is why I don't flirt with people. I sat back down at my work station and and slumped into my chair face palming with my elbows on the table in frustration. I'm such an idiot. Then suddenly a tap on my shoulder. Urrgggh. What now? I turned in annoyance my eyes only half open.

"What?" I asked groggily turning to be greeted by the smiling face of an Asian American woman, possibly Chinese. I couldn't tell. She was very beautiful though, and tall. Not as tall as me but still tall for a woman.

"Oh sorry, did I interrupt something?" She asks sensing my annoyed tone.

"No" I assured fixing my attitude as soon as I noted she was my superior.

"You looked upset, you okay sweetie?" I had never met her but there was something trustworthy about her.

"No, yeah I'm fine" I smiled, then face palmed again dropping the facade "except for the fact that I'm a total idiot." I groaned.

"What makes you say that?"

"Well. You see I just started here yesterday. And there's this guy. And he's like really cute. And I've only talked to him a couple times, but I don't know there's just.. just something about him. And... why am I telling you this, oh my god, you're a total stranger and I'm just spilling my guts to you. I'm so sorry you don't care."

"No, it's totally fine, I care. What happened with the guy? Why do you think you're an idiot?"

"It's just, he came to talk to me and we ate lunch together. And it was actually really nice. But then, I tried to be flirty. And that is just so not my thing. And now he probably thinks I'm a freak. I was wayy to foward. Hell he probably doesn't even like me back." I sighed. "And now I sound like a 13 year old girl. Great."

"Could I ask who this 'really cute guy' is?"

"His names Zack." I smiled. "He's super awkward, but in like a totally adorable way."

"Zack Addy?"

"Yeah, I think that's what he said. You know him?"

"All too well." She laughed.

I looked up at her from my chair, when suddenly it clicked. "Oh god." I stopped eyes widening. "You're Angela aren't you?"

"Yeah, how'd you know?"

"Zack mentioned that you told him to come talk to me."

"That I did." She laughed "I saw that little 'meet cute' yesterday, and something had to be done about it. God knows Zack never would have done anything."

"What's a 'meet cute'?" My face twisting in confusion.

"Oh god, you two really are hopeless. Yesterday when you two met, with the bumping into each other, and the staring. It was adorable and you know it"

"Starring? Oh god, was I staring? He must think I'm so weird." I said in horror.

"Oh sweetie no. He definitely does not think you're weird. If anything, he thinks you think he's the strange one. And tell me you didn't notice that you two were staring into each others eyes for at minimum 2 minutes. That was total romance movie level 'meet cute' right there?"

I blushed. "Are you sure?"

"Definitely. Especially with Zack. He really has no room to judge. We never thought an actual living person would be interested in him. You're like a miracle" we both laughed. But I was a little inwardly offended, why wouldn't someone like Zack?

She pulled up a stool to sit next to me, "so you really think Zack's cute?" She asked leaning forward with a mischievous gleam in her eyes.

-Angela's POV-

I left my 'girl talk' with Catherine and ran straight to Hodgins's office. "You are never going to believe what I just found out" I said in excitement slamming my palms down on his desk to draw his attention.

He looked up with a mix of interest and confusion in his eyes. "Easy cowboy, don't explode on me." He laughed "what'd you find out?"

"That girl, you know the one from yesterday? Red hair, really tall?"

"The girl that ran into Zack? Yeah, what about her?"

"She likes Zack."

"Well I kind of assumed that, that was like romance movie level cute yesterday"

"Right! That's what I said." I smiled that Hodgins had understood my connection.

"I mean. Still though, someone likes Zack.. Wow" he paused in astonishment. "Never thought that would happen."

"And she was nervous to talk to him. Can you believe it? Someone who actually thinks they were the one being weird around Zack."

"Damn. Well good job Zack, that girl was hot."

"Okay she's not that hot" I spat in defense.

"Are you kidding me? A tall red head how much hotter does it g.." He blurted then looked at my obviously annoyed accusatory face as my arms crossed my chest. "I mean, you know. She was.. okay." He mumbled. "Either way, an actual human likes Zack. Wow. Will wonders never cease." he chuckled in amusement.

Suddenly Zack walked in and interrupted our conversation. "Why is it so weird the idea that a human being would like me?" He asked defensively. "Contrary to popular belief I am not a virgin."

"We know Zack" Hodgins defended "you've told us only about a million times"

"Only because no one seems to believe me." He huffed. "Anyways why are you talking about people liking me? Did Naomi come down asking about me again? Because if she did tell her I don't want to talk to her." He said looking frightened. Naomi was Zack's ex, well kind of girlfriend. They had been seeing each other for a couple weeks but she told him his 'sexual' abilities were, well let's just say less then adequate, and broke up with him. But when she tried to get him back she accidentally somehow killed a few of his flesh eating Beatles, and Zack was so upset he broke it off "forever" or at least that's what he said after yelling something about how the Beatles had names. Like I said, he was a weird kid.

"No, not Naomi. It's that new girl. Catherine"

"Oh, yes her." He said with a frown. "I don't believe she likes me very much"

"Wait did you just say Catherine? Catherine Williams?" Hodgins turned asking me.

"Yeah, why?"

"She's my new intern I think. I just haven't gotten the chance to meet her yet."

"Really! Oo, that means she's going to be spending a lot of time with you. Which means time with Zack!" I said excitedly towards Zack.

"And I get a hot intern. Score" Hodgins muttered to himself.

"Hey!" Zack directed offensively at Hodgins who raised his hands in surrender at the sudden outburst. Turning back to me his tone lowered "And time doesn't matter, I told you, I don't think she likes me" he frowned down at his feet.

"What makes you think that." I said walking up to him. " she told me you guys had a great conversation"

"You talked to her?" He looked at me in shock and if I didn't know any better I would almost even say anger.

"Yeah? Was I not supposed to?"

"It's not that" he sighed " it's just.. What'd u say to her?" I'd never seen him this anxious before. It was actually pretty cute.

"Nothing much. She just told me she thought you were cute. And was worried you might think she was being too forward at lunch. By the way, what happened at lunch. She wouldn't tell me."

"Nothing. She just kept telling me I was impressive then said 'I don't know you well enough for a but' the whispered in my ear 'yet' and walked away. I figured she disapproved of me since she left so abruptly"

"Damn, nice move girl." I said approving of Catherine's whispering.

"So she does like me?" His eyes were questioning and distrustful. But also a little hopeful.

"Definitely man" Hodgins replied trying to get a fist bump out of the young squint but only getting a look of confusion.


	3. The man in the Fallout Shelter p 1

**Authors Note:** So like I mentioned before some chapters take place in certain episodes of the show. The next 9 chapters will take place in episode 9 season 1 "The Man in the Fallout Shelter". And as I previously said it will be referencing specific scenes and using exact dialogue. So I'm just stating again. I DO NOT OWN BONES. And now that that's done. Let's proceed with the story.

-Catherine's POV-

It was late and I was one of the few people still left in the lab. Or so I thought. I was just finishing up a report before heading home. When all of a sudden I heard bickering, proceeded by Angela in an elf costume following Dr. Brennan up the platform. I couldn't quite, hear what they were arguing about but from what I gathered it had something to do with the Christmas party and butts? Then in walked a tall man in a suit, and damn, he was fine. Not exactly my type, but no one in their right minds would be able to deny that this guy was smoking. Shortly after he walked in he was followed by 2 FBI agents carrying in a body bag. Angela and the man left shortly after and I joined Dr. Brennan up on the platform.

"Hello Dr. Brennan. Is there any way I could be of assistance to you" I hadn't actually gotten to opportunity to talk to her yet and was extremely nervous. Turning up from examining the bones on the table to face me her face twisted in confusion.

"I'm sorry, who are you?" She asked quite genuinely.

"Oh my name is Catherine Williams. I'm an intern here."

"Ok. What exactly do u think it is you could do that would be of assistance to me that I could not do my self?" Her tone was blunt but I could tell she meant no offense. Or at least I hoped she didn't.

"Oh I don't know" I began to blush. This was definitely a mistake. "I just figured that since the lab was basically empty and you had to examine these remains by yourself that you might be in want of some assistance. And if you were I just wanted you to know. I'm here for that. The assisting. That is." I stumbled awkwardly over my words.

"Oh. Well I believe I should be fine on my own. But thank you for the offer" she smiled "Besides shouldn't you be off at the Christmas party?"

"Well I would be... But I'm kind of avoiding it. I'm not a huge Christmas party kind of person. Plus I'm new here so I don't really know anyone yet."

"Ah. Well maybe I could find something for you to do. I'm avoiding it as well." She looked around the table then lifted a bag towards me. "Go through the victims belongings and determine if anything would be useful in discovering identity, or cause of death."

I grabbed the bag smiling setting up at a station towards the edge of the platform. A couple minutes later the attractive man from before was back. "So what've you found?" He asked the doctor but she looked at me.

"Um so far just 2 tickets to Paris."

"Ok" he smiled at me then looked back to his partner. "who's that?"

"She's an intern. She offered to help so I told her to look through the victims belongings. I prefer not to myself, so that I may remain objective with no previous opinions while I examine the body." I smiled awkwardly. Soon Dr. Brennan was yelling up the stairs at Zack and oh my god, Jack Hodgins! This was the first time I'd actually seen my new mentor in person. He was... shorter then I'd imagined. The doctor's yelling was was stopped by an annoyed Angela standing in the stairway.

"Ok. You people listen to me." The bell of her elf shoe jingled while she taped her foot with her hands on her hips "there is a party going on upstairs. A Christmas party. We're going up there. We're gonna talk to some people. We're going to sing some carols. We're going to drink some eggnog. You are going to kiss me under the mistletoe. On the lips" she pointed to the attractive man then turned to Zack and Dr. Hodgins who were still upstairs. "I might kiss you guys under the mistletoe too." She then looked at Dr. Brennan "maybe even you in a festive, non-lesbian manner. But we are going to that party. Look you've even roped the new girl into your weird unfestive worked crazed plan. I won't stand for this. Now we're going. Now." No one dared challenge her tone.

We all followed her out of fear, and fear alone, of what she might do to us if we protested. I only stayed for a brief couple minutes before ducking out into a hallway for some air. I really hated work parties. Especially when I didn't know anybody there. I went back to the lab and was followed shortly by the others. Looks like they found murder more interesting then colleagues as well. We all worked separately in our own spaces for nearly an hour before Angela came looking for them again bringing along Dr. Goodman, and who I had learned was Agent Booth.

"Seriously sweetie? You need to learn how to relax. Just this once" she stated walking up to Dr. Brennan with 2 eggnogs in her hands.

"I am relaxed. I find this relaxing. And if that eggnog is for me I don't want it. Hodgins spiked it and I would prefer to keep a clear mind while working a case."

Angela sighed then noticed me in the corner and walked up to me. "They roped you in too huh?" She said to me leaning against my table and handing me the second eggnog.

I took a drink before responding. "Actually I offered. I'm not a huge party per" I was interrupted by lights and alarms flashing from every corner of the lab. The doors slammed shut and Agent Boothe began to squirm in confusion.

"The doors shut automatically don't worry about it"

"Don't worry about it!?" He exclaimed.

"There's no use worrying until we find out what it is" Angela said calmly soothing my nerves. Then a half naked Hodgins and Zack walked into the room and my eyes widened at the sight. Not only was my new mentor surprisingly ripped, but Zack wasn't half bad either.

"I cut into the fall out shelter bones. And it set off the biohazard alarms" Zack stated embarrassed.

"Were you conforming to protocol?" Dr. Goodman questioned.

"One of us was" Zack said with a slight attitude looking over at Hodgins.

"The other was drinking an Eggnog, and didn't have his mask on" he said in embarrassment and we all rolled our eyes. We received a call from a man in a Santa suit minutes later as we gathered in Dr. Brennan's office. He informed us it was Valley Fever and we had to stay in quarantine because Hodgins may have breathed the spoors of the disease on us. Acouple hours later a man in an air tight suit showed up with drugs for us all to take. At the mention that we would have to be here a couple days before the results would show up Boothe lost it.

"Wait you mean we're going to be her over Christmas?" He yelled.

"We all have obligations" Dr. Goodman said to Boothe.

"I'm supposed to be in Quebec" Hodgins stated angrily.

"Hey whose fault is this?" Angela accused at Hodgins.

"Who forced me to go to the party where I drank to much and had to hide from Crystal?" Hodgins retorted back at Angela.

"Who never should have cut into a bone with a drunken fool in the room" Angela's accused Zack.

"Who brought us human remains just to ditch a little paper work" Zack snapped at Boothe.

"Wait so your saying this is my fault?" Boothe snapped back.

"Pretty much" I threw in adding to the argument.

"You knew Dr. Brennan would to be able to resist a case" Dr. Goodman blamed Boothe as well.

"Well I would have been able to resist if I was in Niger where I wanted to be" Dr. Brennan said in defense.

"You're blaming me?" Dr. Goodman questioned. The bickering was interrupted by the man in the suit.

"We will have sleeping bags delivered shortly. Have you're loved ones contact me. We'll wet up a visit on Christmas Eve." And he left.


	4. The man in the Fallout Shelter p 2

We all separated for sleep. Zack and Hodgins took the platform, Boothe and Goodman took Brennan's office, and Angela, Bones and I took Angela's floor.

"I know it's against your guys' nature but I'm going to need both your help for this" Angela said as we all lay in our sleeping bags.

"With what?" I questioned.

"We need to make Christmas" she said with a smile.

"Why cause we're the girls?" Dr. Brennan said cynically.

"Exactly" Angela said keeping her smile. "We need to make decorations and gifts and our own secret Santa."

"You called it secrete Satan before" Bones pointed out.

"Oh well. We need a real Christmas."

"I'm in" I threw out with a smile

"You too have fun with that but I already know what I'm going to do for Christmas" Brennan said with a determined tone

"And what's that sweetie?"

"Solve a murder" she said as she stood up and left the room. Angela sighed and looked at me.

"I swear she never knows how to relax." She smiled then looked at me deviously sitting up straighter. "So.. We're stuck here for acouple days."

I looked back at her confused? "Yeah. So..?"

"So... You and Zack?"

"Oh that. I don't know. I just kind of want to stay out of the way" I said. "You all have a dynamic for solving crimes and I just want to help wherever I can"

"I'm not talking about crimes. I'm talking about some good old fashioned tongue wrestling, snogging, gum swapping, are you catching the drift" she winked laughing at me.

My eyes widened as I laughed "oh my god, just straight to the point there I see" I laughed at her bluntness.

"Well?"

"I don't know. I mean we just met." I blushed.

"So. It's Christmas time. This is the time of mistletoe kisses, and snuggling by the fire. Just met or not. Love is in the air. Live a little kid."

I blushed. "Well. The thing is... I've never actually done... It before"

"What? Sex? I'm not saying you need to jump in the sack with him right away." She laughed. "And really? Never?" She seemed baffled by the concept of a 22 year old virgin. I paused. My blush deepening.

"No.. I mean actually ya that. But I meant.. I've never actually kissed someone before." I swear her eyes almost popped out of her head at my words. She was silent for a minute, mouth open and eyes wide.

"Never?" shock evident in her voice. "I mean.. How.. How old are you?"

"Just turned 22"

"How have you made it 22 years without ever having kissed someone? Not even in college or just experimenting with friends? No high school spin the bottle or truth or dare?"

"No, and I don't know. It's just never really happened. I never had that many friends in high school because I was always studying and I've never been one for party's. But guys just don't usually like me I guess."

"What? Why not? You're totally hot"

I blushed and laughed it off. "Well, I assume it has something to do with the height. I'm 5"10 that's average height for most men in America. And guys don't really like it when girls are taller then them. But I'm also just really shy so most guys don't notice me."

"I'm so sorry. That's... Well that's awful"

"It's okay. I'm ok with it. It'll happen when it happens." I tried to reassure myself.

"No sweetie. " Angela all of a sudden looked at me very seriously. " that's what you say about you're virginity. This is different. This is just a kiss. This is something that 5th graders do. Sweetie.. No offense but that's really not healthy." She paused seeing that the more she talked the more I closed in on my self. " the longer you wait the more you build it up in your head and the more pressure you put on it to be this amazing thing."

"Well if you have someone willing to kiss me I'm all ears" I whispered now embarrassed about my admission. I feltlike I was getting lectured by my mom.

"Have you seen yourself? Half of this lab would kill to kiss you. I wasn't joking when I said that you're totally hot. It's true. Here I'll tell you what. Tomorrow. You and Zack. Mistletoe. It's happening."

My face flushed at the idea. "I don't know."

"It's happening. You can't stop it." She smiled then flopped into her sleeping bag as a signal that the conversation was over. I laid down and thought to myself. Shit. I should have never told her that. I actually think I could really like Zack. I don't want to rush things by moving too fast when we aren't ready. I'm still trying to figure out the flirty friend relationship. Or even just a regular friendship. I don't need to deal with this on top of that. Shit. Shit shit shit shit shit shit.

 **P.S.** I know this one was a little shorter, but I'm just trying to space the story of the episode out evenly while still making sense. New chapters are on the way. And again comments are always welcome and appreciated.


	5. The man in the Fallout Shelter p 3

I woke up the next morning and Angela was gone but Dr. Brennan had come back at some point in the night and was sound asleep beside me. I got up and checked my reflection a window quickly. My hair was thin and straight so I've never had to deal with bed head but my face was slightly red from lying on my stomach. It's a good thing I never leave the house without a little concealer and mascara. Some may call it vain, but I call it prepared. I made my way to the bathroom quickly making sure not to run into anybody on the way there. Covering up my slightly pink areas I added a bit of mascara so I could look alive then checked my outfit before I left. I had slept in my clothes, seeing as how I didn't exactly bring a change, so my floral knee length dress was slightly crinkled but otherwise I thought I looked pretty good. People can call me girly all they want. But I see nothing wrong in wanting to look nice. I walked out of the bathroom and was immediately being dragged by the arm to the main area of the lab by Angela who was passing the door right as I exited.

"Where are we going?" I protested.

"We need to go find everyone to sign up for Secret Santa" We walked in on Dr. Goodman, Boothe, Hodgins and Zack gathered around a cart of food.

"It think I found them" I looked over at her.

"Could someone of authority please order Zack to shut up?" Hodgins snapped as we walked in.

"Coffee. Where's the coffee" I said searching the cart notching it contained food.

"Good morning Ms. Montenegro, Ms. Williams" Goodman said with a nod in our direction and a smile.

"Where'd this come from?" Angela asked.

"A hazmat team brought it over earlier this morning" Dr. Goodman replied.

"Mm. Appetizing." I threw in with a laugh as I looked at the assortments of food.

"Ok since we're going to be stuck together for Christmas. I think we should make the most of it" Angela said towards the group.

"How?" Boothe asked

"We'll decorate this place and exchange hand made gifts" she smiled.

"An excellent idea Ms. Montenegro." Goodman agreed.

"I can get behind that" Zack stated between bites as he shoved food into his face.

"I'm in" Hodgins agreed.

"Me as well" Dr. Goodman said with a smile. He actually seemed very nice for a all Dr. Reeds talk about not disturbing him.

"What about Bones?" Booth said only to be greeted with hmms and head shaking indicating a very positive no from the rest of the group. "What why not? Also we need Bones for an even number of people for secret Santa. Ha. Math" he said proudly with a smile and a finger point. We all gave him a look that read 'are you serious?' "What?"

"You don't need an even amount of people for Secret Santa. As long as every person gives a gift and is given a gift it's even." I answered him as everyone else still looked at him shocked on how much of an idiot he could be.

"Ok" Angela turned back to the group ignoring the previous conversation. "We need away to choose our Secret Santa"

"I could build a random generator" Zack said still between bites of food that he hadn't stopped shoving into his face yet.

"Wouldn't it be better to match complimentary people in a premeditated manor?" Dr. Goodman suggested.

"I've got 6 numbers in my head and six letters. You tell me the number I'll tell you the matching letter" Hodgins stated.

"Are the letters sequential or are the numbers sequential?" I asked to clarify, getting nods from Goodman and Zack.

"Numbers. We'll go in order youngest to oldest"

"7" Zack stated

"There is no 7 dude. Also I'm pretty sure you're not the youngest." He said looking at me. I smiled awkwardly at the sudden attention

"Is it A-F and 1-6" Dr. Goodman asked.

"7" Zack said again still not understanding the problem.

Just then we were interrupted by a jar full of paper thrust into our faces by Agent Boothe. "Look just pick a name. If you get your own put it back." He and Angela shared a look like the one we had all given Boothe minutes ago.

"Oh, that could work" I said reaching in.

"I suppose this is simpler" Zack stated cautiously as he reached into the bucket as well, his hand brushing mine in the small container. We both looked up at each other simultaneously As we removed our hands fast both with a piece of paper. Angela gave me a look with her eyebrows raised, causing me to blush. "I still think a random generator would work" Zack said to himself.

We all split of our separate ways to think about our gifts. I went with Angela back to her office since I didn't really have a designated space of my own.

"Who'd you get?" I asked

"I'm not sharing with you. That's cheating" she laughed.

"Oh come on really?" She nodded and I could tell she wouldn't be swayed. "Well can I tell you who I got?" She turned to me interested.

"Oh, please do" suddenly invested

"I got Zack. You know him better then I do. What do u think I should give him?"

"Oh I don't know sweetie. If it was me I'd just draw him something. But yours has to be more personal. Ask Hodgins for some ideas. He knows him better then anyone else here. They're best friends and roommates."

"Oh ok. Ya I'll go do that. Thanks" I smiled and left her office in search of my mentor who I was still yet to formally meet one-on-one

"Dr. Hodgins?" I said walking up to the man. "I was wondering if I could ask you about something."

He turned to me with a smile "Hey Catherine right? Aren't You my new intern?"

I nodded with a smile covering half of my face "Yes!"

He looked at me puzzling. "So why haven't I met you yet? You've been here almost a week."

I looked at him stunned. I had assumed he just hadn't known I was there. "Well, Dr. Reed told me not to bother anyone I didn't have to and that you would tell me when you needed me"

"Oh, no. The had Dr. Reed interview you? Don't listen to a word she says. That woman is a nightmare."

I laughed "She's not all that bad" I stated half-halfheartedly only to be met with an eyebrow raise calling my bluff. "Okay. She is. She's had me cleaning equipment everyday this week and other useless tasks."

"Yeah, well that's going to stop. You're my assistant not her's. And I need you to be working on cases with us." My eyes lite up at his words. Actually getting to work on cases with the FBI at the Jeffersonian was literally a dream come true! "So what it is it that you wanted to ask me about?" he changed the subject back.

I had nearly forgotten my reasoning for coming to see him in the first place. "Oh yeah! So I got Zack for Secret Santa and Angela told me I should come to you for ideas since you're his best friend."

"I am not his best friend"

"Well don't you two live together?" I asked.

"Technically" he answered hesitantly. "Either way I don't really know what he'd like"

"Well you know better then I would. I've only just met the guy" I pleaded Following him as he had began to walk away from me.

"Ok," he paused looking up at me. "He's got this huge family, and he's pretty upset about missing the holidays with them, he likes robotics, he's got a weird attachment to those little flesh eating Beatles over there. Um. He's a total nerd on all things Star Wars, Stark Trek. You get the gist" he paused. And looked at me "ok I'm only telling you this so you can give him an epic present and have more options" he looked at me and sighed "Me and Zack... From time to time. Compete to be," he mumble the last part. "Kmimng of dau baub"

"What was that?" I asked

"king of the lab" he said staring at the ground.

"Whats 'King of the lab'?"

"It's where Zack and I compete to see who can find the most valuable piece of information for solving the case first."

"Oh ok" I smiled. That's actually kinda cute. "Well thank you! I appreciate the help" I smiled and walked away.


	6. The man in the Fallout Shelter p 4

I walked into the bathroom which I had decided was my new personal space since everywhere else private was someone's office. I thought to myself about present ideas for nearly an hour before Angela came looking for me. I've never been good at picking out gifts. Especially for a guy I barely even knew. I just kept thinking about robots. Hodgins had mentioned it and Zack had told me he was getting a degree in it as well. The only problem is I have no knowledge of the science of robotics. My thing's nature. Not tech. Then I thought about how Hodgins said he enjoyed Star Wars. I might be able to go off of that since I too was an avid fan of the series. But what could I do that's home made and Star Wars related. I also thought of his 'King of the Lab' comment which I thought was an adorable idea. I just couldn't think of anything clever to go off of with that either. Besides like a little crown or something, but that'd just be dumb. Urgh why was this so difficult for me. Then I remembered. It's because I don't actually know any of these people. They're such a tightknit group, and I'm only here because I was caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. I wasn't one of them.

"Sweetie, you in here?" My silence was interrupted

"Yeah" I stood up from the couch in the corner of the room. It was actually a very nice room. Considering. There were plants and art around the walls and multiple couches and comfortable chairs.

"What are you doing in here?"

"Everyone else has an office to go to. I figured why not make this mine" I laughed

"Ok, well we're all meeting in Zack's office to look over decoration ideas."

"Ok." We walked over to his office which was already decked out with lights prior to the quarantine. "Wow, neat set up" I complimented to Zack as we entered the room.

"Thank you." He smiled awkwardly as Angela and I joined the boys around a table decked with test tubes, strings, colorful fluids and other substances.

"Ok we have to be extremely creative" Angela demanded.

"Maybe string a bunch of test tubes together, fill 'em with luminescent liquids." Hodgins

contributed.

"Nice. Very festive" Angela approved.

"They'll probably give us cancer" Zack added grimly.

"Well wouldn't that be fitting this Christmas" I added with a tone of sarcasm.

"Come on Catherine. You can't bring us down too. Tidings of joy people. Tidings of joy." She said at Zack sticking a colorful bow to his shirt.

"Decorations do not Christmas make. Family and friends make Christmas" Dr. Goodman added glumly.

"We're friends" Hodgins threw in to lighten the mood. Goodman gave him a look of disapproval and Hodgins responded quietly, "or, not friends." He looked slightly rejected and sad.

The air soon became awkward and Dr. Goodman responded with "We are colleagues, friends, coworkers yes. But for a father like myself. Or like Agent Boothe". All heads at the table suddenly stopped and looked at Goodman. I didn't understand did he say something shocking? "Glowing test tubes don't make up for Christmas morning with your children."

"Excuse me?" Angela said in disbelief.

"Be kind rewind" Zack stated and I laughed at the phrasing.

"Boothe has a kid?" Hodgins finished in shock. Aw that's what they all thought was weird. Since I did not know agent Boothe I had no predetermined ideas about his life. But his strong disapproval of missing Christmas did signify in my mind that it was probable he had a child. Most grown men without families really wouldn't care that much.

"Ah.. Well. Not common knowledge I gather" Goodman stated awkwardly and left the room in a hurry.

"I can't believe this." Angela said still in shock.

"Boothe has a kid" Hodgins slumped onto the table. "So many things make sense now."

"Like what?" Zack asked

"Well, how protective he is. About literally everything" Hodgins reasoned.

"And how upset he's been about missing Christmas" I added shyly.

"Wow." Angela began to settle from the shock. "I was just not expecting... that... I mean. Wow. A kid?"

"Is it really that weird?" I asked.

"Well we've been working with Boothe for months and he's never mentioned it before. Although, I guess I would not have known even if he had. Agent Boothe mainly just ignores me." Zack said the last part mainly to himself.

"Still. I feel like I should have known. I am excellent at reading people" Angela said defensively but somehow also proud putting her hands on her hips. Angela then got a different look in her eyes. A mischievous look. She turned to Hodgins. "Hey Jack. Could I talk to you for a minute? Outside?" She nudged him and gave him those eyes. The 'read my mind even though you have no idea what I'm trying to tell you' eyes.

He looked at her confused. "About what?"

"You know. That. That thing." her tone obvious but still trying to be discrete. And it honestly probably was to Zack. He wasn't paying any attention to their interaction and probably thought it was a total normal conversation.

"What thing?"

"Oh my god." She rolled her eyes dropping the charade "just come with me" she grabbed his elbow and dragged him out of the room with her.

"I wonder what 'thing they're talking about?" Zack said still looking at the table.

I looked at him puzzled that anyone could be that oblivious and laughed looking at the table as well. Then I looked up at him. Oh my god. She did not just do that. She took Hodgens so we could be alone. She was good. Annoying. But good.

"What are you doing for your secret Santa?" Zack asked suddenly breaking the awkward

silence.

"Oh um. I don't know yet. Still decided between ideas. You?"

"Not sure. I got Agent Boothe. But as we've just established I don't know that much about his personal life so I don't feel I have that great an insight into what he would like." his tone was flat and not once did he lift his eyes from the contents of the table.

"Well what do you know that he likes?"

"Nothing really. I'd assume the regular alpha male things though. Guns, bear, naked ladies, poker. None of those I can recreate in this lab unfortunately."

I laughed at the obvious mokage of his character. "Well you know he has a kid. And he was complaining about how not having a present yet. You could give him something to give his kid."

"That's actually not a bad idea." He looked at me puzzled. "But what do kids like?" he finally looked me in the eyes and the butterflies in my stomach began to stir.

"You were a kid once. What'd you like?" I ignored the pending blush.

"Well when I was young I mainly played with microscopes. But I did have a pirate eyepatch and for a brief while a Michael Jackson glove." He stopped and looked at me. "I should not have said that. I've never told anyone that before." It was his turn to blush at the the embarrassing admission.

I laughed. "No it's totally fine. But most boys are more interested in like toys, or race cars, or robots. Hey you are getting a doctorate in robotics aren't you. You could make him a robot?"

"That's actually a brilliant idea. I've just finished making a robot. But it's not obedient as it's supposed to be so I'll have to recreate it anyway for my class. I'll give him this one. Thanks" he smiled down at me now on the same side of the table as me causing me to blush.

"It's no problem. Happy to" we then returned to our sorting through the the decorations on the

table.

"Would you help me?" He gestured a large string of lights towards me " I was going to wrap these around the railings over there" he pointed to the railing of the upstairs area.

"Of course." He handed me one side of the wrapped cord that appeared to stretch out about 8 feet in length. We walked side by side holding the cords as we walked up the stairs. We then proceeded to work together swerving it up and down between the polls.

-Angela's POV-

I dragged Hodgins by the elbow into my office.

"Hey what was that for?" He laughed as we finally came to a stop.

"Well one, I wanted to leave Catherine and Zack alone to talk a bit. And two I need you're help

with something."

"And what's that. Also that is devious. I love it. I'm in" I laughed, he was such a peculiar little man.

"Oh just you wait." I smirked. "Ok. So I promised Catherine Zack would kiss her under some mistletoe today. But all the mistletoe I know of is in other closed off from quarantine areas."

"Ok, so how do you need my help? Also that is a very weird promise to make. They just met why rush it."

"Because. She needs it. "

"Why?"

"Ok you have to promise me the information I'm about to tell you will not leave this room" I got closer to him and lowered my voice.

"I promise okay? Now what is it?" He looked equally amused and curious.

"Ok, Catherine's never kissed anyone before" his eyes widened and mouth dropped similar to my reaction.

"Never?"

"I know right. 22 and never kissed anyone. Like how do you even do that?"

"Yeah, I see what you mean. Girl needs to get smooched now." He was now as determined for the pair as me.

"Exactly. So you got any mistletoe bug man? Or anything that looks like it?"

"Actually I do." He said excitedly. We walked over towards his station and he pulled a little piece

of mistletoe out of his drawer.

"How did yo... Why do.. You know I don't want know" I laughed. "You're a life saver" I smiled hugging him. "Now we just need to figure out where to put it" I thought to myself for a minute.

"Why not just in his door frame?"

"Oh. Ya... I guess they have to walk under there." I smiled at my friend. "Ok let's go" I began to walk.

"Ange. We can't do it right now"

"Why not?"

"Um. They're in there right now. Don't you think that would be a little weird?"

"Oh right" I looked back at him. "Well how long do u think they'll take?" Just then I looked and they were walking out side by side holding some type of chord smiling together. Awe young love. Or at least the beginning of a relationship when being young. Either way still adorable. They went up the stairs and Hodgins and I ran over to the office door pining up the mistletoe toe before they could see us.


	7. The man in the Fallout Shelter p 5

-Catherine's POV-

Zack and I talked while we hung the lights and it was actually really nice. He was funny, and charming, and the conversation flowed much more naturally then our first few. We walked down the stairs back towards his office side by side. We reached the door and Angela stood up blocking us from entering.

"Oh, no no no." She said waving a finger. "And where do you think you two are going?"

"Into my office?" Zack pointed to the inside of the room confused.

"Nope." She stated adamantly. We both looked at her confused. Then I realized what was happening. I looked up and rolled my eyes. "Yup" she said crossing her arms as I looked up.

"What is going on?" Zack asked still not understanding the situation. Angela responded with only a finger aimed in the direction of the top of the door frame. He looked at me and then up to the mistletoe then back to Angela's smirk. "Oh" his tone reminded me of an embarrassed child stunned by the implication of the herb.

"Do it" she smiled at us as we both shared a 'deer stuck in the headlights"' expression. "The holidays demand it" her smirk widening as we proceed to stand there in an uncomfortable silence.

"The holidays demand nothing. You demand it" Zack retorted at Angela to both of our surprise.

He turned to look at me and his eyes were sincere. "We don't have to do anything that would make you uncomfortable." Even though I know he just said he wouldn't kiss me, and honestly I did want to kiss him. I found his sentiment very comforting. When we do kiss for the first time, if we do, I don't want it to be some forced spectacle for our friends. And somehow he knew that. He now looked strong, and protective to me and it made me smile. I looked down at my feet as the blush set in.

"Thanks" I said coyly still looking at the ground.

He turned back to Angela and Hodgins. "Now if you'll excuse me. I would like to enter my office"

Angela still looking shocked at Zack's strong protest looked at me. Then her face turned to sympathy. "Excuse us for a minute" she said to the boys grabbing my arm and dragging me out of the room and away from earshot. "I am so sorry sweetie. I really did not expect that."

"I'm not" I looked back at her with a large smile.

"What do you mean? I thought you wanted to kiss Zack? Although I thought he wanted to kiss you too. I guess I'm just not on my game today"

"No. I'm glad you did what you did. And I'm also even more glad that he did what he did."

"Now you've just lost me"

"He didn't kiss me. Because kissing me would mean something to him. And because it would mean something he didn't want it to be a meaningless show for you two."

"Ok well how do you know that?"

"I don't know. I just do. I saw it in his eyes."

"Oh well that's actually kind of sweet" she looked at me like I was a puppy. "you really do like him don't you?"

"Yes" I smiled.

"Well this is adorable."

"Plus did you see how protective and angry he got on my behalf?"

"Okay yeah, that was pretty hot." she conceded to my point. And we both laughed at the fact that Angela had just refereed to Zack as hot.

-Zack's POV-

I entered the room and past Hodgins, ignoring Angela's abduction of the girl who was fastly becoming my friend.

"Ok, what the hell was that man?" Hodgins accused at me.

"What do you mean?" I asked trying to ignore the situation.

"I mean the hot girl. That obviously just wanted to kiss you. That I thought you wanted to kiss too. Angela and I set up the perfect situation so that you could both kiss without the pressure of it being real"

"That's exactly why Hodgins. I think I might actually like this girl. She's different. And I think she could actually like me. And I don't want to mess that up by rushing her into something she's not ready for. And when we do kiss. I want it to be real. I want it to mean something."

Hodgins looked shocked by the end of my rant. "Wow." His eyes wide. "I think that's the most emotional I've ever seen you before. You really like her don't you?"

"As I said before. Yes. And I'm not some emotionless robot like you all think. I do have feelings. Just because I don't express them as well or as fully as the rest of you doesn't mean they aren't real."

"Wow buddy. Don't overload. I get it. I'm sorry. We know you have emotions." Hodgins said with a laugh.

-Catherine's POV-

I was sitting in the bathroom again thinking of what to make for Zack. I wanted it to be amazing, especially for what he had done earlier. But I couldn't think of anything. I thought about what Hodgins had told me earlier for ideas. The flesh eating beatles sounded interesting. Maybe I could make them a little habitat, so they could be more like pets instead of bugs in a jar. No, Zack's too practical, he'd see it as redundant. He knows they don't have feelings so they don't care about how nice their environment is. Something to do with, his family could be good. But what? Urgh why is this so hard? I think Star Wars is probably going to be my best bet because I know a lot about that, now I just need to think of a Star Wars gift I could make? Suddenly it popped into my head. The perfect gift, or at least I'd think it was perfect if someone made me one. Then heard a knock on the bathroom door.

"Yes?" I said confused.

Angela popped her head in "well I figured I'd knock before just coming into your office" I laughed.

"Foods here"

"Oo, what kind?"

"Chinese"

"Sweet." We left the bathroom together and made our way to the bone room where the food had been spread.

"So what is it that you keep doing while you're alone in you're 'office'?" Angela asked as we walked.

"Oh I'm just thinking of present ideas. It's much harder than it looks. I also did some work. I figure since we're here. Why not get ahead."

"Have you thought of what you're going to make yet? Times running out."

"Ya I actually think I thought of the perfect thing"

"Really? What is it?"

"That's a surprise, and we're here so now I can't say" I told her teasingly.


	8. The man in the Fallout Shelter p 6

We entered the room and everyone was all ready sitting about the table. Angela walked to one side and sat between Brennan and Hodgins. I took the only available seat left, next to Zack across from them, while Boothe and Goodman sat at the ends of the table. (Probably as a show of their male dominance and superiority over the group). We discussed the case for about 30 minutes as we ate.

"When do they insert the needle into your brain?" Zack joked with Dr. Brennan after her admission she had sneezed earlier in the day, which was a sign of valley fever.

"I sneezed because the air is dry. It's not valley fever." She defended.

"Are you experiencing any other symptoms?" Dr. Goodman questioned

"Any headache, shortness of breathe, fatigue, chills?" I asked as I fished out a piece of Teriyaki chicken from my bowl.

"Any foul smelling pustules on your shines?" Zack asked casually. Everyone turned to him giving him a look of disgust.

I set down my bowl. "And I'm done with this" I whispered as I pushed the bowl forward.

"Look she sneezed twice. That's all. Now did you find out anything else about the letters?" Boothe directed the final statement at Goodman.

"Quite a lot, yes. They were very very passionate love letters."

"So careful Lionel had a girlfriend?"

"The girlfriend was in trouble"

"Pregnant in trouble?" Angela suggested and the doctor nodded.

"Looks like careful Lionel wasn't so carefull" I said looking over at Boothe after using his nickname.

"Unmarried pregnant girl in Oklahoma in late 50's" Boothe pointed out the problem.

"You suppose Lionel came up here to procure an abortion?" Goodman asked Boothe.

"You know what this isn't a very Christmas Eve type story" Angela intervened.

"Of course it is. The whole. Christ myth is built off the travails of an unwed mother." Brennan pointed out.

"Can we just stop bringing up the whole Christ myth thing? You know some people at this table

believe it's more then just a myth." Boothe defended with a very offended tone.

"Who besides you?" Bones asked the agent.

"That would be me Dr. Brennan. I'm a deacon at my church" Dr. Goodman responded.

"I do. Christmas and Easter anyway" Angela added.

"Although I believe organized religion is just another political movement designed to control the masses. It doesn't mean God doesn't love me" Hodgins said with a goofy smile.

Dr. Brennan looked across to Zack and I for support. "Hey I'm a rational empiricist all the way." He paused looking down at his food. "Unless you ask my mother. Then I'm Lutheran" We all laughed at the thought. It was actually really cute.

She looked at me and I defended "I'm with Hodgins and Angela here. My family was never super religious growing up, but while I accept its highly improbable there's something else. Out there. That doesn't mean it's not nice to think about." I reasoned.

We were interrupted by the man in the suit coming back into the lab. "Visiting hour. Who's first?"

"As the director of this establishment I claim that right" Dr. Goodman said with a smile leaving the table.

He left and we all finished our meals and shuffled out of the bone room. Zack and I were the only 2 left eating. And honestly I had finished a while ago I just wanted to spend some more time with the man who was quickly becoming my friend.

"So who's coming to visit you?" I asked pretending to eat more rice.

"My family" he said plainly, "you?"

"Oh I'm not having any visitors." I said smoothly.

He looked at me alarmed. "Why not?"

"Well like I said my family's never been that religious so we don't put too much effort into holidays, and my parents live pretty far away. I didn't want to inconvenience them by flying them all the way down here just for a 10 minute hello from behind a glass."

"That makes sense" he said as he continued to eat.

"What about you? Where's your family from?" I asked.

"Oh I'm from Michigan. I'm not sure who's coming though. My family is very large so they may not all have been able to come. We have a lot of traditions so it's very important to my parents that we all see each other for the holidays"

"That's sweet," I smiled. "How big is your family"

He actually had to pause and think about it for a minute. "Well I have 4 brothers. And 3 sisters" my eyes widened at the large numbers. "And some of them have children of their own. And then there's my parents. And sometimes my parents siblings and their children spend the holidays with us as well"

"Wow" I said in shock. "I just have my parents and an older sister. We don't really like the rest of our family enough to visit them for holidays though" I joked.

"Not even cousins?

"I don't have any cousins."

"Wow. Now I'm impressed" he said causing me to blush with a laugh. "Not any?"

"Nope. I think the closest I have is like a second cousin once removed or something like that"

"Lucky." He responded then looked back a t me regretting his previous stamens. "Don't get me wrong, I love my family. They're just a little much. Most of my family think I'm 'weird' because of where I work"

"What in a prestigious lab, that helps people everyday, solves murders, and uncovers mysteries of the past?" I tried to comfort.

"No. With dead people."

"Ah." I frowned knowing all too well what that's like. Pausing an idea sprung to my head and I spoke before even really thinking it through "I could come with you to talk to them if you want? You know maybe they won't make any comments about it if you're not alone" I reasoned.

"Really? I mean if you wouldn't mind that would actually be great. My brothers never believe me when I say that I have friends here. They don't see how a normal person could enjoy this kind of work. Some proof would be nice"

"Ya I don't mind at all" I smiled. "And I totally get that. No one understood me much back home either."


	9. The man in the Fallout Shelter p 7

An hour passed as everyone visited their loved ones, we all watched from a far as Boothe visited with his son. He was actually really cute. He looked to be about 4 and he was so happy to see his dad. It kind of melted your heart.

"Are you not visiting with anyone either?" Dr. Brennan asked as we both watched the others visit their family's.

"Not my own family no. We aren't particularly sentimental about this kind of stuff" she nodded in understanding. "I was going to go with Zack to visit his family though" I added casually.

"Why? She asked confused. "Do you know them?"

"Well no. But he was anxious about seeing them here at the lab by himself. Apparently his siblings think his work is weird"

"Yes. I often here that comment from Boothe. I don't see what people think is so strange about studying the skeleton. It's brilliant work and can tell you so much about a person"

"I agree. I've always been fascinated by anthropology. I minored in it in college."

"I thought Hodgins had told me you minored in entomology?"

I blushed that she had even remembered anything about me. "I did. I did both. I figured a certain amount of anthropological knowledge would be useful if I were to someday work here, which was my goal."

She nodded then changed the subject. "Why did Zack ask you to go with him though? I did not know you two were friends?"

"We're becoming friends. But it's because I offered. I'm not visiting anyone else so I figured, why not."

"I see"

"Catherine." Zack said coming up from behind Dr. Brennan. "It's my turn now. Would you still like to accompany me?"

"Yes of course" I smiled. "If you'll excuse me Dr. Brennan. It was very nice talking to you" even though I accepted the formality of the statement was unnecessary she still made me quite nervous and I wished desperately to impress her. Zack and I made our way over to the doors where we were greeted by what looked like almost 20 people. Wow he wasn't kidding. The man in the suite gave us both a Bluetooth headset so we could talk to his family on the other side. His family all eyed me with mixed emotions of confusion, intrigue, and excitment.

"Hi everyone" Zack said smiling.

"Zack!" His mother said excitedly. "What happened? They were pretty vague when they asked us here. Are you alright?"

"Yes mother we're fine. A set of remains that I sawed into apparently carried a strain of valley fever so we are just stuck here until the results are back on if any of us were infected. It's highly unlikely though. We are all mostly likely going to be okay. Dr. Brennan sneezed earlier but she insists its just the air quality."

"Ok," his mother sighed in relief. She then turned her attention to me. "And who might this be?"

"Did little Zacky finally get a girlfriend?" One of his brothers said.

"Good job man." Another said.

"No this is just my friend Catherine. She did not have anyone to visit so I said she could come with me" I don't know why, but his words of 'just a friend' hurt me slightly. Even though I did know that was the current nature of our relationship. It still stung.

"Well it's very nice to meet you Catherine" his father said with a smile.

"You all as well" I said smiling addressing the bunch. "Zack said he had a big family. But wow" I laughed.

"Were you bragging about us Zack?" One of his sisters teased.

Before he could respond a different brother interrupted "Wait. So you're all stuck in there because YOU messed something up?" He asked Zack.

Zack began to defend himself but I could see how nervous he was getting already, feeling the pressure from his family. "Actually Zack was following protocol, it's more Hodgins' fault. Idiot was drinking eggnog when Zack cut into the bone" I laughed lightening the insinuation.

"That's true. And Agent Boothe is the one who brought us the body in the first place. So if it's any ones fault that we're here it's definetly not mine" he assured.

"Ok, let's maybe keep the talk of bodies down around the children" another family member said covering a child who looked around 7's ears.

"Good idea. So what are you guys doing for Christmas tomorrow?"

"We're flying back out to Michigan tonight and then the usual for tomorrow morning" one of his sisters said.

"We already got the tree yesterday. Sorry dude but when you didn't show up we had to go" his oldest brother spoke again.

"It's all right. I understand. There was only so much time to get the tree"

"Uncle Zack! We got you a present when you get out!" A little 5 year old girl said.

"I can't wait to see what it is" Zack said lowering down to be eye level with the little girl. "And I

have a present for you too." He touched his hand to the glass across from hers and stood back up. "I have presents for all of you. I should be out by afternoon tomorrow and I'll be on the first flight to Michigan after that."

"We can't wait. We'll save the important traditions for when you get back" his mother smiled and put her hand to the glass. Just then a timer beeped. "Oh does that mean the times up?"

"I'm afraid so. I'll see you all tomorrow though. I love you." He said putting his hand against the glass placing it up to each of his family member smiling as they left.

"They seemed sweet" I said to him as we walked back.

"Yes. Well they were on their best behavior because you were there just like you said they'd be."

"They all seemed pretty worried about you"

"Not so much. My mom was worried. The rest just wanted to know what I did to mess up."

"You under credit them. They seemed to really miss you"

"You give them too much credit"

"Is it that weird to you the idea that some one might miss you that wasn't your mother?"

"Well, frankly yes. I have discovered that in most social situations my presents is not missed and often they are happier I'm not there" he said lowering his head.

"Now that's not true and you know it. No situation is better for you not being in it" I told him as we walked into Angela's office which was currently empty.

"Says who?" He said flopping onto Angela's couch.

"Says me." I said putting my hands on my hips looking down at him. He paused and looked up at me meeting my eyes. He could tell that I meant it and smiled. I shivered at the sudden intensity, this was no longer just a friendly conversation between coworkers. It was happening again. We were having one of those moments. Those unspoken moments of a shared understanding and admiration. After a minute of staring I sat down beside him, honestly closer then was necessary seeing as how the couch was fairly large. "You know, you're not half bad to be around. Don't sell yourself short" I said quietly.

He looked at me and smiled. We were so close that when he faced me our faces stood inches apart. "Thank you" he said softly. Looking back and forth between my lips and my eyes.

"For what?" I said copying his eye movements.

"For believing in me. Most people don't."

"Well most people are idiots." I said smiling. He leaned slightly forward and I closed my eyes.

"Ah hem" someone coughed loudly. We both turned toward the door moving apart. Angela stood in the doorway with a smug look on her face and her arms across her chest. We both looked at her like deer in the headlights, blushing intensely. "And what exactly were you two doing... In my office?" She said shifting her weight onto her hip.

"Umm.. Nothing?" I said shooting up off the couch. "Just... talking." My blush was now the color of a tomato. "Now if you'll excuse me. I have to go... Do.. Things" I said speed walking out of the room.

-Zack's POV-

I was still on the couch in shock after the startling disruption. Catherine left and I was now alone with Angela's stare. I stood up " I should really, be umm.. I better get... Ima go". I stumbled over my words pointing towards the door before I walked out with my head down.

 **Hi Again:** So... I know, that was such a huge tease but I promise you wont have to wait much longer and it really is worth the wait. PLus now you get the hilarious image of Angela walking in on Zack in her office. Please comment. I'd love to know what you guys are thinking.


	10. The man in the Fallout Shelter p 8

**Author Note:** We're finally here! Double digits! And I promise this'll be a chapter to remember. I try and keep these short so you can continue on the story but I just like to check in on how you guys are feeling about the story every once and a while. I've already gotten over 150 views on my story and I know for alot of people that doesn't sound like much, but for me, this being my first story, it's kind of a huge deal. The idea that people all over the world are sitting at home (or wherever you are) and reading my words that I have spent hours creating just makes me happier then you could ever know. So I thank you for that. And thank you for taking time out of your day to read my story. It really does mean a lot to me and I know you don't care, but I just thought I'd let you guys know how much you means to me.

-Catherine's POV-

I walked into the bathroom and sat on a couch trying to cool down. He had almost kissed me! That was the closest I had ever come to a real kiss. It was, intense. The air around us was thick and it was as if something a had taken over my body. After I had calmed down I stood back up. I had a present to make and not a lot of time. Unfortunately to make my present I would have to go back to Angela's room. I walked in casually and kept a straight face.

"Are you serious?"

"What?" I asked casually pretending I didn't know exactly what she was talking about.

"Don't you what me. Explanation. Now"

"You know. I really don't want to talk about it." I rushed walking over to the andelator.

"Yeah, well too bad. Spill." She said walking over to me.

"Ok. No we didn't kiss. We were just talking and.. And it was nice. Ok. But that's all I'm gonna say. Now if you don't mind. I have a present to make. And I would like your help." I rushed through the sentence.

"Alright. What do you need?"

"Do you have any lasers?" She returned my statement with a look of confusion.

The next morning we all gathered in Angela's office where the presents we had made each other were wrapped and set onto the Angelator. As we stared at the empty table Angela grabbed her tablet and hit a few buttons, the table was suddenly covered in yellow lights with an animated tree in the center. For a computer program it was actually kind of magical. It glittered and lights spun around it, we all clapped for Angela's creation.

"Merry Christmas everyone" Angela said with a smile turning to give me a hug.

"Merry Christmas" I said returning the hug. We separated and she turned to hug Hodgins then

Brennan. I turned from her to face Zack. I paused for a minute. But hey. Screw it. It's Christmas. I reached forward and hugged him. "Merry Christmas Zack!" I smiled as he embraced me back.

"Merry Christmas" he returned. We held each other for probably just a moment too long then separated awkwardly. When I was standing by my self again I noticed Angela was giving me some serious side eye. We looked over the tree for another couple minutes.

"Okay, let's get to it. Grab your presents and come over here!" Angela said grabbing the present with her name on it and heading over to the sofas by her desk. We all followed her lead and formed a circle to open our presents. Angela went first opening a large printed image in a frame.

"Oh my god, it's beautiful. What is it?" She looked around to ask whoever her secret Santa was.

Hodgins responded. "It's prettier if you don't know the details" he assured her.

Dr. Goodman went next opening his box to find a folded paper bird. "Wow. Someone made this?"

"Yeah" Boothe smiled proudly.

"I'm next" Zack said with a smile unwrapping a tube with his name on it. "A metal tube?" He said twisting his face in confusion.

I leaned over from my seat beside him and pointed at a button near the bottom of the tube. "Press this" I said with a smile. He complied and a green light shot up from the top.

"Oh my god." His mouth dropped as he looked at the space age sword.

"Is that what I think it is?" Hodgins said with his mouth equally wide.

"Yup" I said fairly proud of my work.

"How did you.. It's so.. wow" Zack said as he swished it through the air

"It's just a laser with a limited range. And a bunch of other mumbo jumbo Angela had to explain to me" I said simply smiling at his obvious joy.

"This is amazing. Thank you" he said smiling reaching over to give me a side ways hug.

"Guess that makes it my turn" I said grabbing a rolled up piece of paper with a bow on it. I unrolled the large paper to find a drawing of my face in the center of a rose. "Because my middle name is Rose?" I asked Angela in a smile.

"Yes. And you're just as beautiful as one." She said with a smile.

"Well thank you. I love it." I said as I admired the likeness.

Hodgins went next picking confetti out of a jar to reveal what was apparently a rendering of a Scarabaeus sacer. Or sacred scarab Beatle from Dr. Goodman. Boothe went last opening Zack's yellow tub to find the robot "wow. Zack, that's a.."

"Self-propelled non-autonomic unit." Zack stated plainly but Boothe still looked confused.

"It's a robot" I said simply nudging Zack with my shoulder playfully as we all laughed.

"I thought. If we get out of here in time today. You could give it to your son" he told the Agent.

"Thanks a lot" Boothe said with a large smile.

"Your welcome" he replied.

We all admired our presents. I couldn't believe how lifelike Angela's drawing was. I mean I know it's her job, but still. Zack was standing up and swinging his light saber back and forth making sounds with his mouth. He was adorable. And how much joy my present gave him made me so happy I could burst. I have to admit, if someone had made me a light saber I'd be that happy too. Once again we all shuffled out one by one to find other ways to pass the time until our results came in later today. And once again it was only Zack and I left in the room still.

"Angela's drawing really is beautiful" Zack said as he walked over to me still on the couch.

I was still staring at the details of the image "I know. She's so talented. I used to think I could draw. But compared to her I might as well be a third grader" I said with a laugh looking up at him. He was much closer then I thought he'd be.

"It also doesn't hurt that she had such a beautiful subject matter" he stumbled out trying to be smooth. And honestly it worked. I blushed and was filled with a sudden new confidence that had possessed me that day in the lunch hall.

I looked up at him with a smirk. "Was that flirting I just heard?" I teased.

He met my eyes with a bashful grin. "Maybe.." He paused. "Did it work?" he asked honestly.

"Maybe" I copied his response.

He paused and then looked at me confused. "Wait. I'm confused. Was that a yes maybe, or a no maybe? I can never tell with these things." All smooth had left his system.

I smiled once again and reached up to grab his hand. The simple touch said it all but I figured I'd clarify. Just in case. "It was a yes maybe. A definite yes." My confidence was now fading. But then he squeezed my hand, and sat beside me on the couch. We were once again inches apart like we had been yesterday afternoon. But closer; our hands still intertwined now resting on my knee. He raised his unoccupied hand and brushed a stray hair off my cheek. I couldn't believe how corny this moment was. But I didn't care. I didn't even care if Angela walked in again. There was no way in hell my lips weren't touching his this time. The air around us began to thicken as we just sat there for a moment waiting for the other to move first.

"Would it be alright if I kissed you now?" He whispered

"I'd be mad if you didn't" I responded smiling. And with that he closed the gap. His lips crashed into mine and it was strange. It was slow, soft, sweet, and hesitant. But also somehow passionate. His hand once again took it's place on the side of my face, guiding me closer to him and my free hand went to his

side. He was oddly in control, and firm. And apparently I liked it. He was no longer awkward or rigid. He was passionate and knew exactly what he was doing. We separated only our lips for a moment of breath, our foreheads resting against each others. He moved his hand brushing more hair off my face softly. It was then that I had noticed how close we had gotten. I was practically in his lap and our legs were wrapped around each others. The kiss had gotten much more intense then either of us had intended.

"You're a very good kisser" I whispered as we both breathed.

"I've been told this" he said chuckling "you're pretty good yourself" he whispered back. I didn't know how to respond. I didn't have any funny quip about past experiences. But I had a feeling saying thank you wouldn't be the right choice. So I just leaned forward again. This kiss was faster, and we were much closer. I was leaning almost completely on to him, but that wasn't entirely my fault, he had been pulling me as well. I had to admit, I don't know much about making out, so maybe I'm not the best judge here but I'd say this kiss was pretty hot. Especially for two socially awkward lab nerds. We were fighting to close any and all space between us when we heard someone sneeze. We froze, and then turned slowly towards the door separating . With eyes wide and jaws dropped we found the gaze of not only Angela, but Hodgins, Boothe, and Brennan as well. We slowly moved apart and were now sitting on completely separate sides of the couch. None of them had moved. After 2 minutes of just sitting this way Angela finally burst out into laughter. We all stared at her confused, except for Hodgins who seemed to understand what she did as he burst into a fit of laughter as well.

"Angela. What's so funny" Brennan asked concerned.

"Nothing... Oh my god" she tried to talk through fits of laughter, but wasn't very successful.

"What is it?"

"Nothing. Just." She was having trouble standing now "Oh sweetie." She looked at me with pity "I'm sorry. That is not how a first kiss should end" you could barely make out her words through laughter.

"Why does no one ever believe I've kissed people before?" Zack shouted in frustration.

I looked at him awkwardly. "She meant me" I said quietly, my blush deepened as he looked at me stunned. I looked and Boothe had the same look while Dr. Brennan just looked perplexed.

"We're gonna, jus.. Yeah" Angela muttered after regaining her composure pointing at the door and looking at everyone else to follow.

"Wait, we're just going to ignore this?" Boothe said.

"Yup" she said grabbing his arm to drag him off.

"Bu.. But" he looked like a disappointed child as he was dragged to out of the room against his will.

"We just came to tell you that the results should be here soon" Hodgins laughed with approval as he left us alone in the room once more.

 **Author Note:** So... what'd you guy's think? Was it worth the wait? Too much? Not enough? Let me know what you think in the comments. This was my first ever attempt at writing anything like this, so sorry if it's not the best.


	11. The man in the Fallout Shelter p 9

We were silent for a moment when Zack turned to me. He open his mouth to speak but was silent. "Well that was uncomfortable" he finally said. His light tone brought me out of my shyness and I smiled back laughing.

"Yeah" we made eye contact and it was comforting, and I was normal again.

"So that was really your first kiss?"

"Yeah.. Is that okay?" I asked

"Of course. I mean, it would have been nice to know before hand so I could. You know try and be good at it" he tried to joke. It didn't really suit him. But the thought made me laugh.

"You were good at it" I defended.

"Well now I know you're only saying that because you have no point of comparison." He joked

"Even without comparison, I'm still pretty sure that was a good kiss" he smiled. "You're cute when you smile you know that?"

"I've been told. But not usually in the way I think you mean."

"And what way is that?" I asked my confidence now back. I don't know what it was about him that made me feel at ease. But I was comfortable around him, and I knew he wouldn't judge me for being my self.

"Well the fact that you kissed me leads me to believe you mean cute in a way that you find attractive. Most people when they tell me I'm cute mean in like a puppy or a child way."

"Well you are cute in a puppy kind of way." He started to frown at my words. Guys don't really like to be compared to adorable defenseless baby animals. I moved closer to him on the couch once again. "But like, a hot puppy."

"That one I haven't heard before."

"What, hot puppy? Yeah. I knew it sounded weird the second I said it. The words hot and puppy just do not go together" I laughed

"No, hot. I've been called many," he paused and I could tell he was thinking of some not so pleasant memories "many things. But never hot" he paused. I could see he did not feel the same confidence he gave me. "Do you.. Really think I'm hot?"

I moved closer. "If I didn't would I do this?" I cupped his face and kissed him softly. This time it was short, but still electrifying.

We separated and he smiled at me. "I'm assuming the answer to that is no" he laughed.

"Ok seriously. Do I need to spray you two down with cold water!?" Angela voiced from out of the corner of my eye.

"Jesus Christ Angela" I sat back in shock. "Quit sneaking up on us" I exhaled trying to catch my breathe after the surprise.

"Then quite making out in my office" she had a point.

"We weren't making out this time. That was just a kiss" Zack corrected her.

"For now. But who knows what could have happened if I didn't come in here" she said crossing her arms with her signature Angela sass. There was a sound of machinery and buzzers in the distance. "Results are in" we followed her out to meet the others by the platform. Everyone eyed us as were walking very close so I moved a little creating a space. The lights on the machine showed green and we all ran out of the Jeffersonian as soon as possible. Once outside I reclaimed my walking position of right next to Zack.

"Ah. Fresh air." Hodgins said walking out onto the steps of the Museum. "Alright. Home Zackio"

"No I need to go to the airport. I promised my family I'd be on the first flight to Michigan" he insisted.

"Then catch a different ride man. Because I am going home"

"I could give you a ride if you want" I offered coyly.

"Works for me. See you when you get back Z-Man. Now if you'll excuse me. I have masseuse to get to" he said with a smirk getting into his car.

"Thank you Catherine. You really didn't have to"

"It's okay, honestly. I was headed that direction anyway" I said as we climbed into my small car.

We drove in an awkward silence for 10 minutes. I clocked it that's how noticeable it was. Neither of us really knew what to say. Were we a couple, were we friends, were we colleagues who made out and would probably never speak to each other again?

"Do you like me?" Zack blurted out breaking the silence.

"Oh, just direct and to the point I see" I laughed.

"Like I said. I'm very bad at reading social situations. I just wanted to know, because I like you. And if you didn't like me I didn't want to embarrass myself further" I smiled, he was so sweet.

"Of course I like you. If I didn't like you why would I have kissed you?" I asked kind of alarmed at his under confidence.

"I don't know, because being trapped in such a small space creates pressure situations and you felt like you were supposed to, or because you were bored and thought it would be funny" he paused "it wouldn't be the first time with something like that happened"

I looked at him and frowned. "I would never do something like that. Of course I like you Zack"

"Could I ask... Why?"

"Why do I like you?"

"Yes."

I smiled. "Well you're funny, and you're sweet, and by far the smartest guy I've ever met, and. I don't know, there's just something about you" I blushed, I'd never been this honest about my feelings with anyone before, let alone a guy I liked.

"What do you mean something?"

I blushed. "Well. I don't know, I've just. I've never met anyone like you before. You don't hold anything back, and I don't know why but for some reason I'm comfortable around you, which I'm not with most people. And I don't know. I guess why does anyone like anyone. I just do." After I finished he was silent for a minute. I turned to face him "what, was that the wrong answer or something?" I laughed.

"No. It was a good answer" he replied

"Then what?" Still keeping a light tone.

"It's just. You seem to believe in me. No ones ever thought that highly of me" I parked the car in the airport parking lot.

"That because people are idiots."

"You said that earlier"

"That's because it's true." I smiled at him. "You should probably get going, Michigan awaits."

He began to get out of the car "thank you for the ride again"

"Really it wasn't a problem". He looked down at me then popped back in the car leaned over and kissed me. "What was that for" I said in shock as he climber back out.

"You're special too" he said with a smile "don't forget that". He shut the door and walked into the building. This was by far the best Christmas ever.


	12. No Longer Blurry

**Author Note:** Sorry it's been so long since I last posted. I've started school and just really haven't had a lot of writing time. I'm posting another chapter right after this but then it might be a while before I post again. Especially because I prefer to write in story blocks. (kind of like how I posted all of the Christmas episode chapters at once.) I like to finish the smaller 'stories' all at once so you aren't left at an awkward cliffhanger. I'll try my best to keep updating but it'll be hard. I'm in my schools play, AP classes, Duel enrollment College Classes, and I do sports. So I'll do my best, but sorry if it takes a while. Also this chapter's kind of just an weird transition. It's awkward but necessary to progress the story. So their's not a whole lot of substance, so again, sorry for that as well. And with that, back to the story..

The proceeding four days after Christmas were relatively boring. I wasn't needed at work so I stayed home, and since I was new to the area I had no friends other then those I met in the lab, and I'm not sure if I should even call them friends. I would have considered calling up Zack, but our relationship was still a little fuzzy and any ways he was still in Michigan with his family as far as I knew.

I honestly hated time off. A day or two was a nice break but after that I just grew anxious. On the fifth day of my seemingly endless break Dr. Hodgins called me in, I through on a white dress brushed my hair and left my apartment in seconds. I arrived at the museum within 15 minutes. I walked in and things were busier then usual.

"What's going on?" I asked Dr. Hodgins about the flurry of excitement.

"They've found a perfect specimen from the Iron Age!" He was so excited, walking while he talked. "Brennan's been asked to authenticate it. Imagine what this could mean for the museum if it was the real thing!"

"That's amazing!" I shared his enthusiasm "how 'perfect' are we talking?"

"An entire, intact skeleton, with clothing, weapons and all"

"Wait really? That's extremely rare! Is it available for viewing?" I asked looking around for where it would be.

"Not right now, Goodman's briefing Brennan and Zack right now. But after it should be available. Just no touching obviously." I paused. I don't know why but the news that Zack had been back and I didn't know about it bothered me a little. "You can look at it later though. You have work to do and you'd have to wait in line anyway" he pointed to the row of doctors with their faces pressed against the door to the bone room. With that he suddenly left our conversation, I'm assuming to work on some other business. Just then Dr. Goodman and Dr. Brennan left the room, dispersing the crowd. Which means, Zack was alone. I quickly walked over and poked my head in to see him bending over the table eye level with the bones. He was squinting, he really did look very cute focusing so hard on the remains. I stepped further in and he still didn't notice my presence. I continued to walk towards him until I was inches away from him and he still hadn't noticed I was there.

"Ah-hem" I coughed and he bolted up looking at me in surprise.

"Catherine, hi, umm. I didn't see you there."

I laughed then turned to examine the bones "so what do you have here."

"It's a solider from the Iron Age. Or at least we think it is. Dr. Brennan and I must authenticate it."

"This is so cool. I can't believe how rare this is." I looked back up at him "you must be excited, a find like this can make careers."

"I am. Especially since we've only really been handling murders lately it will be nice to go back to something more traditional. This is why I became an anthropologist after all." I smiled at his obvious joy "was there something you wanted or were you just coming to socialize?" He asked awkwardly.

"Just here to socialize. And see the awesome bones. So when did you get back?"

"Yesterday. Why?"

"I was just wondering. Todays my first day back since Christmas so I wasn't sure."

"Oh" he said in alarm.

"What? Did I say something" I replied in a panic.

"Oh no." He said looking back up at me. "I just found an odd fracture to the orbital region. It might be cause of death."

"Oh, cool. I'll just get out of your way then. Let you do your work"

"Thank you." I began to walk away but he spoke again "I'll talk to you later" he said hopefully after me.

I smiled. "Yeah, later" I walked straight to Angela's office as I was procrastinating work. I entered her office and Angela ran over to hug me.

"Sweetie where have you been?" She said as she squeezed all the breath out of me.

"Home, they didn't need me to do anything here. Why?" I said wheezing.

"Because it's been like four days. And you never talked to me about Zack." She placed her hands in their usual place above her hips. "Ok sit down and spill it. Now. And don't leave out any of the details. What happened between you two? When I walked in you were like Dogs in heat."

I laughed. "Nothing. We just. We were talking and then one thing led to another and.." I paused.

"and WHAT!"" she asked excited.

"And we kissed. It really wasn't a big deal."

"It's your first kiss of course it's a big deal. So.. How was it? I mean cause I've never really thought of Zack being that you know," she paused to think of the right word "assertive. But from what I saw. That was one hot kiss" I blushed. "That good?"

I looked up at her and smiled. "Better." Her eyes widened and she leaned forward as a signal for me to continue. "I don't know how to describe it really. It's like, I wasn't even in control of my own body."

"Oh, I know that feeling. When you kiss someone and you just have to close any and all space in between you because you just need to be closer to them"

"Exactly" that is exactly how I had felt.

"Oh honey. You need to go find him like right now and ask him out. That doesn't happen with just anybody. Especially with your first kiss."

"You really think I should ask him out?"

"Definitely. Why wouldn't you? You're a strong independent woman and it's the 21st century. Also guys like Zack need a little nudge when it comes to the love department. Trust me. The sooner the better. You don't want to just let this romantic tension stir, because it'll fade if you don't move. You need to go. Like now."

"But he's working?" I defend as she started to shove me out of the room.

"Doesn't matter it takes 2 seconds. Just do it." She pushed me through the hallway back to the bone room. I stumbled in and she shut the door behind us.

Zack looked up at me alarmed. "Can I help you?"

"Oh um" I tried to play it cool and leaned back on the door "nah, I'm good. You?" I was failing.

"We just talked like 5 minutes ago? Or has it been longer and I just didn't notice?" He muttered the last bit primarily to himself looking down at his watch.

"No.. It's just.. It's nothing. I'll just go" I said pointing to the door.

He walked over to me "well it must be something or else Angela wouldn't have pushed you in here."

I looked back at him and blushed "you saw that?"

"Yeah. So what's up?" He said leaning against the bone table crossing his arms.

"It's nothing really, it's just. Angela thought" I paused trying to,figure out my wording. "Well I thought." I began to fidget with my hands. Looking down trying not to make eye contact. I've obviously never done something like this before and was extremely nervous.

"Now who's the nervous one?" He joked and I looked back up at him surprised by his confidence. He moved closer to me and wrapped his arms around my waist. This eased my nerves and I put my arms around his neck. Our relationship no longer felt blurry now that we were together. We held each other closely but our upper bodies were leaned away from each other as we looked into the others eyes. "So what's making you so nervous?" He spoke softly in a comforting tone.

I smiled back at him "you". he leaned forward and kissed me lightly. "I was wondering if you wanted to go on a date with me?"

He looked back at me with a large smile. "I would immensely enjoy that." He released my waist and started to move away from me again. "But for now I must get back to work"

"Oh yeah. Sorry." I said with an awkward smile "Later." I began to leave and he looked back at me.

"I'll find you this time" he said and I laughed.

"Yeah".


	13. First Date

By the end of the day I was exhausted and just wanted to go home and pass out. Hodgins had been complaining to me about Goodman all day and I kept having to log in and out of computer conversations with Dr. Brennan who was in LA all day. But Zack and I had planned to hang out on a 'not official date' date after work. I was packing up my station when he approached from behind me. "Are you ready to go?"

I turned to smile at him " yeah just let me grab my things from my locker. I'll meet you by my car"

"Okay" he said and walked away without a second look. I laughed to myself. He's so weird. Cute. But weird. I walked back to the locker rooms to put away my lab coat and grab my bag. I looked in a mirror, I knew it wasn't a real date and I didn't really need to impress him. But I still wanted to look nice. I smoothed out my dress, it was white and lace with a high neck line, it was actually one of my favorites. My hair was tied back in a low pony tail so it'd be out of my way while I worked, but I untied it letting it fall back to the center of my back. I actually looked pretty nice today which was a relief considering the rush I went through leaving my apartment this morning. I left the room quckly and entered the parking garage.

"Sweetie wait up!" I heard a female voice yell from behind me.

"Hey Ange, what's up?" I asked turning to face her

"Nothing just wanted to know what you were up to. A couple of us are going to get drinks wanna come?" I smiled at the idea that she thought of me.

"I can't. Zack and I made plans to hang" I said proudly.

"Wait really? Like a date." Her eyes lite up.

"It's not really a date. It's more of just a hanging out sort of thing" I reasoned.

"Sure." She said raising her eyesbrows accusingly. "Well if you two get bored stop by, we'd love to have you"

"We'll see" I laughed. "I better get going, Zack's waiting for me" I began to walk away.

"Ok, don't do anything I wouldn't do" she called after me with a smirk in her voice.

"To be fair that's not much" I called back as I walked. She laughed and I made it to my car.

"Hey, sorry it took so long, Angela stopped me to talk" I told Zack unlocking my car and stepping in.

"It's okay." He replied copying my actions into the car. "So what are our plans for this evening?"

He said looking at me as we both settled into our seats.

"Well we could go to your place and hang out, or mine. Or we could go see a movie, or Angela said her and some friends are getting drink and she invited us." I paused. "I'm rambling aren't I?" I asked with a laugh. "You choose. I'm good with whatever"

"Hodgins doesn't like it when people come to the house. Your place might be better."

"My house it is then." I smiled and pulled out. We drove again in silence. No matter how comfortable we were around each other there was still a layer of discomfort that was always present in a newly forming relationship. We pulled up to my complex and I parked. "so this is me.." We got out and walked up to my door awkwardly together. This was much more uncomfortable then either of us had anticipated. We reached my door and I fidgeted with the lock. "Sorry, it always does this"

"Here let me try." He said grabbing the key from my hand. My nerves were instantly soothed by his touch. He turned it once and it unlocked. I looked up into his eyes and breathed. I hadn't even noticed how heavily I'd been breathing. The idea of bringing a guy I liked up into my apartment was making my heart beat race. "Are you alright Catherine?"

I snapped out of my thoughts "oh, me? Yeah I'm fine." He grabbed my hands and looked back at me with a questioning look. "I've just never brought a guy into my apartment before, and.." my rambling was cut off by him leaning forward and kissing me. We separated and I looked back at him stunned. "What was that for?" I said softly.

"When we kiss it seems to lower tensions. You seemed tense." I loved his mater of fact tone.

I smiled back at him "Well thank you." He's so sweet.

"Shall we enter your apartment?"

"We shall" I said with a smile opening the door and we walked inside. "So what do you want to do? I've got movies or game, or we could just talk or.." I paused and looked back at him. "I'm rambling again."

"You are. But it's okay. What kind of movies do you have?" he asked walking over to my cabinet full of movies.

"Pretty much everything" I said walking over to join him. "We've got series' some Star Wars, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, or just some single movies the Princess Bride, Fanboys, but those are just my favorites. I've got a ton more" I said oddly proud.

He looked at me puzzled "You have a very large collection of films"

"Yeah, it's kind of what I do" I said with a smile. "So, what'll it be?"

"Well I've never seen The Princess Bride or Fanboys. And if they're your favorites out of all of this they must be pretty good. One of those" he stated sitting down on the couch.

"You've never seen The Princess bride?" I asked in horror. "But it's a classic everyone's seen The Princess Bride"

"Apparently not everyone" He replied with a laugh "But I'm glad to join the rest of the population"

I popped the disk into the DVD player and sat back on the couch next to him. We sat in silence for the first 40 minutes awkwardly next to each other but not touching. I moved slightly towards him so our shoulders were touching. He stiffened at the contact but softened after a minute. He turned to face me and whispered "I understand that most people would put their arm around their dates in situations like this?"

I smiled to myself and turned to him "that would be correct" he lifted his arm and wrapped it around my back grabbing my shoulder. I leaned into him and we sat that way for the rest of the movie. It ended and I looked at him. "So what'd you think?"

"It was good. But I'm confused. Was it all just a story or was it real, because of what the grandfather said at the end?"

"No it was all just a story, the Grandfather was just making a reference to the quote. This is one of the most quoted movies ever. With 'As you wish' and 'you killed my father prepare to die'" I said with a laugh.

"I see. Well then yes. It was a very good movie. I see why you like it so much." He stifled a yawn at the end of his sentence making me look at the clock on my wall.

"Oh wow, it's later then I thought." I said sitting up out of his arms.

"Oh, would you like me to leave now?" He said sitting up as well. I paused, the thing was I didn't want him to leave. I felt better when I was around him. And this was just really nice, but it was 11 and we had work tomorrow.

"You know, I really wouldn't" I laughed leaning forward, closer to him teasingly. "But it's late, and we have work tomorrow. So that'd probably be for the best." I smiled and leaned back away.

He leaned forward towards me "So you want me to leave?" He asked insincerely with a hint of sarcasm and a smirk as he closed the gap between us kissing my neck softly.

I laughed and leaned away from him. "Stop I'm ticklish" I joked. I looked in his eyes and giggled "You're smooth you know that."

"Thats what I was going for" he said leaning in towards me again. Man, what had gotten into him? He went from awkward cute puppy to smooth horn dog in about 5 seconds. I guess guys are guys, no matter how intelligent. I couldn't resist and gave in. Our lips crashed together and soon one thing led to another and we were lying on my couch 'making out', as some would call it. He was over top of me and our hands were roaming, searching the others. Suddenly I felt his hand on my thigh going up and taking my dress with it. I brought my hand down to stop his right before it reached my butt. I gave him one more kiss and then we separated. I touched my lips and blushed to myself as I tried to sit up, which was difficult because Zack seemed pretty content in his current position. His face looked confused at the sudden stop in motion.

"It really is late" I rubbed the back of my neck finally getting out from underneath him. "And we do have work tomorrow." I tried to catch my breath. He finally joined me in sitting up.

"You're right." He said standing up. "Um, could you give me a ride home?" I froze. Oh yeah, I drove him here. But it was the middle of the night. Crap. I did not think this whole my place thing through. I just wanted to go to sleep, not deal with the whole driving to his place and back thing, especially since it was after midnight. Maybe he could sleep here? I really don't want to leave the house right now, but this is our first date. Wouldn't that be a little presumptuous? What am I thinking? No of course not he can't sleep here. I'm not ready for that and that would be such a big step. Not to mention all the complications that come along with it, like would he sleep with me or on the couch or? And do I even want him to sleep with me? You know what no. This isn't even a discussion. He's going home. I joined him on my feet. "Definitely" I said with a smile even though in my mind I just wanted to curl up in a ball and sleep forever.


	14. The Man on the Fairway p 1

**Author Note:** Hi guys, so I'm trying my hardest to keep updating, and I'm sorry it's taking so long, but my school play just ended so I will hopefully have more time to write. But What I wanted to say here was that if you haven't yet, could you please take a minute to look at the cover art for this story. If you are reading this on your phone and are unable I will try and find away to link the picture in as well because it is very important to me that you all see the picture. I drew it one day out of boredom as just a simple piece of fan art in which I was hugging Zack Addy. But the more I looked at it, the more I realized there could be a great story made out of what was going on in the image. The image is a picture of "Catherine" or myself hugging Zack, who is in his white pajama outfit and black gloves from when he breaks out of the hospital in season 4 episode 4. Although this scene will come later in the story it was the inspiration for the entire ordeal, so it is very important to me that people see it. To me at least, there is a lot of meaning and emotion to it and I would really love to share that with all of you. That's all, I love you all, and I hope you are enjoying the story so far. Sorry not sorry that it's basically a mini novel and I'm no where near done.

~a couple weeks later~

We all sat in Dr. Goodman's office as he informed us that our newest set of remains would be priority number one. Apparently the plane crash victims that had arrived at the lab earlier this morning were communist Chinese diplomats. There were 6 victims and only 5 registered people meant to be on the plane, so we were meant to figure out the extra person's identity as fast as was physically possible. Dr. Brennan disagreed saying we should worry about the seventh victim found at the crash site, that was not part of the crash, and actually a completely separate murder victim. Goodman denied her request with his scary boss voice which I still wasn't used to. Brennan stomped out of the office, angry that she didn't get her way.

The rest of us left shortly after. I went with Hodgins to work on the case, but there really wasn't much the worlds of entomology or botany could do for the crash victims so we played a very little part in the current investigation. My new mentor had me spend my time cataloging any and all noticeable fibers left on the victims or brought from the scene. Which usually would have made me angry to be given such a remedial task, but I actually enjoyed the simplistic busy work. I was in the middle of examining a piece of something, I hadn't figured it out yet, when Angela and Zack came over to the station Hodgins and I were sat at.

"We're going to go brief Brennan on our findings so far, come on" Angela said briefly before turning and walking toward the bone room. We all followed her, Zack and I walked close to each other a little behind Hodgins. We entered the room to see Dr. Brennan hunched over what looked like a vertebrae.

"We've made some progress on the mystery passenger" Angela stated with her usual playful tone.

"Fill me in" Brennan replied with an obvious lack of attention.

"Nasal ridges indicate she was a Caucasoid female approximately five feet ten inches. Epiphyseal fusion puts her age somewhere between 20-25" Zack presented plainly. I really did love it when he talked technical like that.

"So far we've only found particulates from the plane or their clothing. Nothing to indicate fowl play." I added our findings briefly.

"I've got a theory" Angela threw out.

"femme fatale assassin" Hodgins added and we all ignored his absurd theory.

"unregistered flight attendant" Zack stated innocently.

"Young beautiful girl, doesn't appear on the in flight manifest. Group of high powered politicos" the end of her sentenced carried a tone of mischief.

"ohhh" Hodgins chuckled getting the message Angela was trying to project.

"wait what, what?" Zack was obviously confused. I patted his shoulder and shook my head laughing quietly to myself.

"Someone on that flight might have been doing his daughter's or his girlfriend a favor" Brennan speculated still not paying much attention to anything outside of the bone fragment that sat on the table.

"You're so sweet honey, you really are" Angela laughed.

Zack's eye brows raised and I could see he finally understood what Angela was insinuating "Ohhhhh. You think she was the 'in flight entertainment'" he directed the statement at Angela with a look and we all rolled our eyes at the simple genius that was Zack Addy. I laughed and he looked back at me still confused.

"Anything you want to tell us about the bone bits you care about?" Angela asked Brennan finally pointing out the strange vertebrae which obviously did not belong to one of the crash victims.

"Supraorbital margins rounded, suggesting a male." Zack stated looking at pictures of a different fragment on one of the screens.

"Yes and there are signs of osteolytic liping or polish on this piece of vertebrae." Brennan said in her usual monotone.

"Arthritis" I stated simply to clarify to Angela who obviously was confused at the technical speak.

"So middle aged guy?" She added with a more serious tone then usual.

"Weathering and discoloration suggests these bones have been out there for approximately five years." She finally looked up at us all "I'm going to ask you all to help me on this"

"You mean after the Communist thing?" Angela asked even though she already knew the answer.

"No immediately"

"I'm in" Hodgins stated.

"You want us to defy Dr. Goodman?" I asked remembering his tone from before and how adamant he had been about the priority of this case.

"I'm in" Hodgins said again, slightly louder.

"Not defy per say, do both jobs but keep one a secret." she smiled as she talked. She was not very good at being 'mischievous'.

"I'm in!" Hodgins exclaimed louder this time.

"We get it, you're a rebel" Angela stated rolling her eyes.

"Zack, I need you to analyze the cuts on the bone."

Zack paused before turning back to his superior hesitantly, "I was kinda hoping to keep my job"

I made myself small trying to stay out of being assigned a task as well. I also didn't really feel like loosing my job this early in my carrier.

Angela pulled the tray of fragments in front of her "There's not enough skull here for me to do a reconstruction"

"If I gave you a picture, you could tell me if the skull piece doesn't match?"

"I could construct a schematic and see if the shard fit the general shape of the skull, if I had a picture"

"Has anyone noticed that I was the first to offer help and apparently I'm useless?" Hodgins added annoyed as Brennan passed a photo to Angela.

"Not true. You're the one who's going to keep Goodman from finding out." Brennan said with a smile.

"I'm in" Hodgins repeated proud to be part of the rule breaking.

"Catherine, you work the case as usual while other people deal with this." Brennan said to me as people began to file out of the room. I nodded and exited. Wait, what did that mean. There's nothing really in my department to do for this case. Unless she meant to do other people's work. But I don't know how to do other peoples work. Crap. I hate breaking the rules

 **Author Note:** sorry if this chapter was a little boring. I really like this episode so I wanted to do a couple chapters on it, and this scene is kind of essential to the plot no matter how boring and just copying straight from the script it is. Also just going to throw in here just to be safe. I do not own Bones or most of the dialogue used in this chapter. I embellished bits and added Catherine in to the story but other then that if you just watch this scene in the episode you'll get the gist a whole lot fast. It's really not that different. Once again, sorry for the weird filler chapter but it was necessary to progress the plot. And I'm trying my hardest to write new chapters. I'm on a holiday break right now so hopefully I'll be able to post a couple more chapter before school starts again but after that it might be a little while before I can post again.


	15. The Man on the Fairway p 2

**I'm Back:** Merry Christmas guys! (I realize it isn't Christmas when I'm publishing this and it probably won't be Christmas time whenever you read it. But I'm on Christmas break right now, so Merry Christmas everybody) Unless you don't celebrate Christmas. In which case, Happy Holidays! I know it's been over a month since I posted that last chapter and I'm sorry about that. But unfortunately this I don't have good news for you guys' Christmas present this year. I'm only going to get busier and busier with school so don't be shocked if it's April before you see another chapter again. I'm trying to keep up my writing, but with school and everything it's hard. So hopefully I'll be ale to post before April, but I may not be, and I just thought I should warn you guys of that. Now back to bones, and again, I own nothing. Except Catherine, and even her, some of the dialogue isn't mine.

 **ALSO PLEASE REVIEW. CRITICAL OR POSITIVE, IT DOESN'T MATTER, I LOVE TO HEAR YOUR THOUGHTS.**

Everyone scattered to get to work, but I honestly had no idea what I should be doing. I chased after my mentor before he got to distracted watching Goodman.

"Hodgins" I called after him, and he stopped turning to face me. "So, when Brennan told me to work the case as usual, what should I do? We really weren't doing that much on this case in the first place."

He paused, because he knew what I meant. "Good point. Um," He paused scratching his beard for inspiration. "Find Zack, all he has to do is analyze the bone cuts. That shouldn't take him too long, and you can help him so it goes faster. Then you two can work on the communist thing. I know he doesn't want to be working on this anyway."

"Okay." I agreed.

"Now I have to go watch Goodman. If this is my one job I'm gonna do it like it's my last"

We split and I went to find Zack in his office. I peaked my head inside the door "Hey there stranger" he greeted me with a large smile as I entered the room.

"Hey, what're you doing here? Don't you have other work to do?"

"Nope. Hodgins told me to come help you."

"Oh, well, I don't really think I have that much you could help with, unless you know how to determine the weapon used to cut these bones."

"That I do not. But Hodgins told me that this shouldn't take you that long, and then after you're done, you and I can continue working the communist case."

"Usually I would say Hodgins is right but there's something different about these cuts." He stood up and began to walk without saying another word.

"Where are we going?" I asked following him out into the lab.

"I have to look at the fragment under a specific microscope over by the platform."

He placed the dish which held the fragment under the microscope and a large image of the object appeared on the screen in front of us. He stared at it for a few minutes without saying a word. I looked up to the platform to see Hodgins bent over with his eyes barely above the rail watching Goodman across the room. Damn he was taking this seriously. Suddenly I heard a frustrated sigh come from Zack.

"What is it?" I asked trying to get a better look at the screen. Even though, I really didn't know what I was looking for.

"Well, one of the bone fragments has distinctive ridge mark indentations"

"Knife Marks?" I asked.

"Yes, specifically probably a carving knife."

"Ok? Well then what's the problem?"

"See here," he pointed at the screen.

"The jagged marks?"

"Yes. They had to be made by some sort of machine blade."

"What like a jigsaw or-" I paused trying ot think of other machines with blades "a chainsaw?" I asked, still not seeing what was bothering him.

Suddenly we both looked up to the sound of Dr. Goodman clearing his throat, obviously to show us he was there. "Are you suggesting one of the Chinese diplomats was wielding a chainsaw?"

As soon as Goodman began talking Hodgins was running down from the platform to be part of the conversation. He did a weird combination of clearing his throat and laughing as Zack and I just sat there frozen. "Ah, good one sir, very droll." He laughed. Dr. Goodman began to walk closer to us and he began to try and avert his attention again "Zack really knows much more about this then I do" he looked down at Zack as a signal to start talking "but I'm sure they weren't discussing a literal chainsaw cut but rather the pattern it leaves on the bone. Right?" He paused again looking to Zack "Zack?"

Zack just sat there staring at Goodman with his mouth hung open in terror. I could see we weren't getting anything out of him any time soon so I jumped in. "You know blades move in several distinctive ways."

"Several distinctive ways" Hodgins agreed.

"Circular elliptical segmented, chainsaws are designed to cut soft materials at high speed when cutting hard materials like bone they create wave marks by the action of the blade." Zack finally joined in, but he was speaking a mile a minute and I could barely hear a word he said. Suddenly his arm came up and he pointed at the screen. And all the while his eyes did not leave Goodman's. "This pattern is too organized, too linear."

"Therefore, no Chinese chainsaw massacre scenario." Hodgins added.

"Hmmm, yes, fascinating. What has it got to do with the victims of the plane crash?" Shit, I hate lying, he totally knows we're lying.

"We not only have to reassemble each of the plane crash victims but figure out how their remains were scattered." Hodgins rationalized to our boss.

"Not by being cut up, that's for sure." Zack spoke again but still timidly.

"Now we've eliminated blades." I said quickly, Dr. Goodman rolled his eyes at us and walked away. I breathed out with a sigh, that was too close for comfort.

Hodgins suddenly looked very serious and looked at both Zack and I with anger "Never. Freeze. On. Me. Again." and he walked away to go keep an eye on Goodman again.

"I find Dr. Goodman scary." Zack said still terrified at the air where Dr. Goodman had been standing.

"So do I. That's why I want to get this whole bone thing done so we can get back to work on the Chinese." I said trying to regain his focus.

"Ok" he said looking don at his feet.

"Hey I know one thing for sure now though."

"What's that?" He looked at me confused.

"I can always trust that you aren't lying to me." I said with a slight laugh.

"Why's that?" Zack responded as confused as ever.

"You really are a terrible liar" I laughed and bent down to kiss his cheek.

We both blushed for a second. That's the first time either of us had shown that type of affection for each other at work since Christmas. And I guess also that week after when we went on our first date. But since then we've tried to keep it strictly professional while we were at work. I know it's not like the FBI here, but I still didn't know how Goodman felt about the whole colleague fraternization thing, and I definitely didn't want to push it.

"So what other kind of machines have blades?" I asked trying to get the conversation back on task. I sat on the corner of the table so we could be closer in eye level since he had already sat down in a chair.

"Well, it definitely wasn't any kind of a saw. I think it might be something that would be something that spins in a circle."

We both paused. "What about a wood-chipper?" I said and his eyes shot back up to the fragment, his smile grew wide and he stood up abruptly.

He hugged me and spun me in a circle, which was a first and weirdly uncharacteristic of his usual conservative nature. "That's it!" He kissed my forehead and ran off to go tell Angela what to be looking for.


	16. The Man on the Fairway p 3

**AN:** 2 chapters in a row, wow, look at me go. Like I said I'm on break, so I'll be posting as much as I can.

Around an hour later Zack and the rest of the "squints", as Booth likes to call us, were no where to be seen. I was on the platform swabbing for particulates when Zack finally came back out. He walked slowly and his head was lowered like he was sad.

"What's wrong?" I asked when he had swiped his card and was walking the stairs toward me.

"It's nothing. We all told Dr. Brennan our findings, and when I asked her if we could just go back to working on the Chinese case she said that we would continue working behind Dr. Goodman's back." He slumped his head further down as he leaned against the railing.

"I'm sorry" I said awkwardly patting his shoulder. Comforting people really wasn't my thing.

"It's okay, I'll be fine." He breathed with slight annoyance. "I just hate breaking the rules. I'm a scientist. Rules are there for a reason"

"I know. I do too." I paused "But hey, all you had to do was analyze the bone cuts right?"

"Yeah?" He looked up at me confused.

"So you already did that. So you're done with that. And now we can get back to work on this mystery woman."

His eyes lit up and he was smiling again "You're right" he said beaming.

"I know I'm right" I laughed. "Now. You have a dead woman to identify, and I have toxicology reports to run" I said with a smile walking towards one of the dead Chinese men.

* * *

~A few more hours later~

"Hey Brennan and Goodman should both be in Angela's office, I was gonna go tell them what I found in the toxicology report. Want to come tell them what you've found?" I asked from behind Zack as he bent over a body. He nodded quietly and followed me to Angela's office. Her doors were closed which was unusual, but I decided to knock first just in case. I knocked lightly while opening the door and pocking my head inside. "Is now a good time?" I asked lightly directed toward the room.

"Yeah come on in" Hodgins replied.

"Did you find anything new?" Goodman asked as Zack and I entered the room.

"Well, toxicology reports came back from all six victims. Pilot and co-pilot were clean. Our two Chinese nationals had elevated levels of alcohol and Sildenafil, or as it's more commonly know as, Viagra and our mystery girl showed traces of alcohol and cocaine." I said proud that I had done something on my own.

Hodgins looked at me confused, but also kind of impressed. "You ran a toxicology report?" He was met by a steely concerned look from Goodman. "I mean yeah, I knew that. Because I told you to do that. Yup." He tried to cover.

Dr. Goodman shook his head and turned to Zack for more information. "Uh, the prostitute was six inches taller then anyone else on the flight and she had occupational stress markers."

"Let's not call her a prostitute yet, Mr. Addy." Dr. Goodman answered sounding slightly offended. He paused and looked back "What occupational markers?"

"Eh, it's a foot thing." Hodgins added casually while looking at a file Zack had handed him.

"She was a fetishist?" Goodman responded in shock.

"Both her Cuboid and Medico Malleolus show signs of wear." Zack explained showing Goodman the X-rays. Goodman was still looking at him confused and a little disgusted though. "Meaning she wore extremely high stiletto heels."

While Zack was explaining Hodgins leaned over and whispered at me "Nice going on the toxicology report." I nodded with a smile. I did something right without being told, score!

"I reconstructed her face from the partial skull." Angela said as a picture of a blonde woman appeared on the Angelatron.

"She was hot!" Hodgins said toward the screen in approval.

"I suggest we try to match this reconstruction with escort ads both internet and print in the DC area." Brennan said blankly.

"Oh, I'll do that!" Zack's head darted up and he responded quickly. A little too quickly. Everyone around the room looked up at him; eyebrows raised, and I smacked him upside the back of the head with one of the files I was holding. "Was that overly enthusiastic?" He asked understanding how that had come out. I laughed quietly as I rested my head in my palm.

"Thank you for the update. This case continues to be your top priority, correct?" Dr. Goodman looked at Brennan.

"If I could suggest..." Brennan tried to talk but was interrupted by Dr. Hodgins

"Dr. Brennan has been very clear about your priorities on this, Sir." He insisted.

And with that Zack and I took our que to leave. We were half way to his office when he grabbed my arm and we stopped walking. He looked me in the eye and he all of a sudden looked very serious. "I'm not in trouble am I?"

I looked at him confused. "Of course not? Why would you be in trouble?" I asked taking his serious tone.

"Well because I said that thing before. About the prostitutes" I laughed at the last word. "What's funny?" he asked seriously.

Still laughing, "Of course you're not in trouble"

"Are you sure? Because-" he paused "well because, I was thinking we were sort of a.." he paused again, he was so cute when he was nervous. I knew what he was trying to say, but I kind of just loved to watch him squirm. "you know."

Okay, I guess that's enough. I'll let him out of his misery "We are" I said squeezing his hand lightly. "And if you were planning on meeting up with one of the prostitutes, or doing something with another girl. Then I'd probably be mad. But you are allowed to look at other girls." I laughed again, but this time it was a smaller sweet laugh.

"So I'm not in trouble?"

"No you're not in trouble" I laughed and continued walking, I dragged him along by his hand. "You really had me worried there for a second" Our tone was light again as we entered his office.

"Well you hit me when it happened. I assumed you were mad" he placed his lab coat on a hook and we exited again.

"Yeah, you can look. But maybe don't be so excited about it right in front of me." I laughed again. He really was adorable. "So where do you want to go for lunch?" I turned around to face him, walking backwards as we held hands. This was probably a super adorable picturesque moment.

"I like that Chinese place that Booth goes to."

"Then Chinese it is" I smiled back at him as we walked outside.

When we entered the parking lot I saw Brennan and Booth standing next to a large SUV with what looked like a wood-chipper on the back of it. We walked up to them hand in hand.

"Booth, nobody told me you were working this case." Zack greeted the two as we approached.

Booth looked at me for a brief second but did not even acknowledge that Zack had spoken. "Only two people have had access to this machine in the past seven years, a city maintenance foreman and a city maintenance worker by the name of Ray Sparks. Sparks has got a jacket so... What do you say, huh? You want to come with me to go talk to him?"

I looked to Zack to see if this was normal because to me it just seemed really rude. He was smiling like he enjoyed it though so I didn't question it.

Zack leaned toward his mentor "Told you. Guy thing."

Brennan looked hesitant though "Um, yes I'd like to come." She said to her partner as he walked toward the front of the van. She paused and then looked at Zack and I "Let Angela do the escort matching. I have something a lot more interesting for you two and Hodgins."

"What's more interesting then escorts?" The agent said and I glared at him rolling my eyes.

"I need you guys to run a dispersal pattern test on the chipper." The doctor replied blankly.

"Using what medium?" I asked intently.

"Assume the victim was frozen solid when he was fed into the chipper."

Zack and I both froze for a second looking at each other with our jaws dropped "No way!" He said toward our superior.

Brennan walked back to get into the SUV, Booth whispered something in her ear and she looked back at us "Yes way"

Zack held his fist out in a clenched motion for a fist bump but the agent walked away without giving us a second look.

"What was that with Booth?" I asked after they had driven off.

"What do you mean?"

"He was ignoring you. He didn't even look at you. And then when you said it was a guy thing? What did that mean?"

"It's kind of our thing, it's what we do. Ignoring me is Booth's way of acknowledging my presence. It's a guy thing."

I shook my head, and moved on. "We should go find Hodgins and tell him the good news!" Lunch could wait, this was going to be awesome.

* * *

We had taped up a perimeter and got on suits so we wouldn't ruin our clothes. Luckily Jack happened to have a a frozen pig. I didn't know why, and I didn't want to know.

A crowd was starting to gather once people saw what we were doing.

I walked beside them as Zack and Jack wheeled the pig down the pavement. Zack was looking around at the crowd nervously. "Too many people. How are we going to keep this from Dr. Goodman?"

"He's having lunch with the President of Harvard. Don't worry about it" Hodgins assured.

I looked over and Angela had started to approach us "What's going on? Why is every guy from the Jeffersonian out here?"

"They're scientists, this is a fascinating, scientific inquiry." Hodgins sounded absolutely giddy with excitement.

"Oh my God! They're all out here because you're going to feed something through this wood chipper."

"Not just something." I added "A frozen pig!" Who was I kidding, I was equally excited. This was awesome.

Angela gaged.

"The morphology of pig bones is almost identical to human bone." Zack defended trying to explain the science.

"By feeding the pig through the wood chipper we'll be able to determine the dispersal pattern of the fragments." Hodgins added to the cause.

"By comparing the pulverized pig remains to the fragments we found at the golf course we'll be able to tell if this is the actual wood chipper the victim was fed through." I reasoned with Angela.

"Liars! You just want to see what happens when you toss some frozen pig into a wood chipper." Angela called us out.

"I mean, you're not wrong." I laughed. "Here lets get out of the way." I said grabbing her hand and pulling her to the front of the crowd.

Hodgins and Zack grabbed the sides of the pig. The crowd cheered and they swung the pig with the counting. "1... 2... 3.." And the pig was in the wood-chipper. Pits of pig flew through the parking lot. Never mind, bits wasn't the exact word. Chunks was more like it. I hate to say it but this was no where near as cool as I thought it would be. We all clapped and laughed as the last chunks of frozen pig flew through the air. Suddenly I looked over, and shit. It was Goodman. And he scrapped a piece of pig of his jacket. We were screwed.


	17. The Man on the Fairway p 4

Zack and I had headed back to my place after work. At first Goodman had called us all back to his office, but it was clear very fast that Zack and I had nothing to do with going against his orders. So he let us go and kept Hodgins.

We were snuggled up on my couch and half way through Attack Of The Clones when I heard a knock at my door. Zack and I both looked at each other confused and I paused the movie.

"Who's that?" I asked Zack.

"Maybe it's Hodgins. He said he'd come pick me up after he got out of the lab."

"Yeah, but I thought he said it would be around 11?" I looked over at the clock on my wall. "Oh, damn it's 11:30." There was another knock at the door. "Okay I'm coming" I yelled toward the door with a groan. I got up and walked to the edge of my apartment opening the door to find the short scruffy man that was my boss.

"He threatened me. Me?" Hodgins said to himself walking into my apartment, he was clearly agitated.

"Please, come in" I said closing the door and walking back to sit with Zack on the couch. Hodgins obviously wasn't leaving and he was still murmuring on about something. "So how'd it go with Goodman?" I asked since he obviously wanted to answer.

"Let me tell you something. I see why you guys were so scared of him before. That is one scary man when he's mad."

"What did he say?" Zack asked as Hodgins took a seat on one of my bar stools.

"Well he told me that he could be, and these are his words, 'petty and vindictive' which at fist I laughed at because come on, it's Goodman. But then he told me that he would take me down by 'striking at me through my friends and my co- workers'. I mean seriously who does this guy think he is?"

"Your boss?" Zack pointed out matter of fact, and I couldn't help but giggle a little when Hodgins glared at him.

"Oh yeah. That reminds me Zackio, he also said he'd find some kind of administrative way to punish me. And parking was brought up.." Hodgins added un-apologetically.

"Wait what? But you drive me to work." Zack whined sounding like an upset child.

"Oh no you have to walk a little further. Remember you broke Goodman's rules too."

"Yeah because you guys made me. Catherine and I were against it from the beginning." I looked down. I was not getting in the middle of this.

"Either way. It doesn't matter now. It's late and we need to head home." Hodgins said getting up and heading for the door.

"Agreed." Zack said as he stood up. I stood up with him and we shared a brief goodbye kiss.

"Okay love birds. Move it along. Some people do need to do this thing called sleep you know."

Zack walked out with him and I smiled to myself. I was a love bird. I was being teased for being mushy with a guy. This had never happened to me before. I could get used to this.

* * *

The next morning we were called to the golf course to look for more bone fragments since they had now figured out the range and likely position of the wood- chipper. There was about 100 of there searching the ground for hours. We were divided int groups and assigned sections to search the most efficiently. Each group had around 5 members. And lucky for me I happened to be assigned to the group with agent Booth. Great.

We began walking toward our section and Booth after about my third eye roll whenever Booth talked he had finally caught on to my annoyance at him. I really did not like him. He was such an arrogant jock type. I'd met enough of him in my life, people are all the same. I was digging in a corner of our perimeter when he finally came up to me. I really did not want to have to deal with this right now.

"Hey, Williams right?" He asked from behind me.

I turned around to meet his eye. "Yeah, but my friends call me Catherine."

"Okay then, Catherine-"

I cut him off again "You can call me Williams" and I began to walk to another corner. I was trying to do my work, I didn't get why he was so insistent on talking to me.

He followed me as I walked. "Did I miss something?"

"I don't know to what you are referring."

"You seem mad at me." He stepped in front of me to stop my walking, "Which normally I wouldn't care about, but seeing as how I don't even really know you and I know I didn't do anything against you. I would like to know what exactly you think it is that I did that you seem to hate me so much?"

I sighed, I guess he had a point. "You want to know why I don't like you?" I asked with an angered confidence.

"Well yeah."

"You're mean to Zack that's why I don't like you. I know you're kind, you make fun of anyone you don't deem on your level, just because they aren't athletic, or charismatic, or attractive enough in your eyes."

"Wait hold on, my kind?" He sounded offended but I really could care less. "You don't even know me."

"I know you enough to know that you are exactly like all the other jocks from high school that make fun of the nerdy kids." I began to walk away again and for a moment he didn't follow me. I could tell I had left him stunned a bit. I was a little ruder then I had needed to be, but I didn't care. The guy was a jerk and he needed to be told that.

"Hey hold on a sec" He was now behind me again, what was it gong to take to shake this guy. "That's not fair"

"Well neither is the way you treat Zack."

"What does it even matter to you how I treat Zack?" He was now in front of me again and we had stopped moving walking.

"Because I'm dating Zack?" My eyebrows raised and I could tell I had just used that tone that I had always gotten in trouble for using at my sister at my house when I was younger. The tone that said wow you're such an idiot how can you not know this.

He was taken back a little bit "Wait you are?"

"Yes" There the tone was again.

"Bu- but he's so. And- and you're so.."

"See that's exactly what I mean. You think just because I'm hotter then Zack, in your sense of beauty, that I have more value or am better then him. Zack wants so badly to be accepted by you and you just ignore him. And then lie to him and tell him it's some kind of a special 'guy bond' when really you just can't stand to give him the time of day." My angered tone was back and I was starting to use hand movements.

"Yeah but he doesn't know it's a lie. What's so bad about it. He's happy, I'm happy. It's how Zack and I work."

"But it's a lie. All Zack has ever wanted was to fit in with what you would consider 'normal people' and you aren't helping. Do you know how sad it is, to just sit there and watch as he tries to talk to you and you just pretend that he doesn't even exist. He's really not that bad of a guy if you would actually bother to get to know him. He's funny and charming, and witty. But you wouldn't know any of that because all you see is a socially awkward kid with a big brain." I paused to see if he would respond but I could see I had taken all his defenses away. "Now if you'll excuse me. I have some actual work to do. You know the reason that we're here." I walked away and continued to dig.


	18. The Man on the Fairway p 5

**AN:** So this chapter was originally part of chapter 17, but by the time I had written it all out it was twice the size of any of my previous chapters. So instead I just split it about half way through and opted for 2 slightly shorter then average chapters. I really didn't want to spend this much time on this episode but, this is where we are. So not much we can do about it now. This will probably also be the lat time I post on this story for a while. Breaks over and I need to get back to doing school work.

Also thank you guys so much for reading this. almost 1,500 people have read my story and I can't tell you what that means to me. So thank you for choosing this to spend your time on and please review!

* * *

Back at the lab we had found 15 more bone fragments out by the course. And luckily enough a nail with something under it. I was analyzing the nail and others worked on identifying the fragments.

It seemed to be polyurethane. But how did polyurethane get under the victims nails? He would have had to be scratching at something. That's it!

I walked up on to the platform where Hodgins, Zack, and Dr. Brennan were working.

"The substance under the nail was polyurethane. That got me thinking what was polyurethane used in. And I remembered that polyurethane is commonly used to line large freezers. Like the kind the victim might have been put in to be frozen."

"Good work" Dr. Brennan's praise was rare and I gladly accepted it with smile.

The phone rang and Hodgins said something to the doctor causing her to run out suddenly.

"What was that about?" I asked.

"Jessie just got arrested for assaulting his step mother."

"The guy who's dad this is?" I paused "Or could be"

"Yeah"

"Woww" I knew that guy seemed off.

"Yeah, that guy was 20 different types of messed up." Hodgins responded.

"So what next? Anything else you want me to analyze?"I asked my superior.

"Wow now, slow your roll workaholic. Just take a break, I'll tell you when I need your help."

He left and I walked toward Zack who was sitting in a chair in front of a computer looking confused at a notepad.

"What about you? Anything you need help with?"

"Well I have to wait for these bone scans to come in from the hospital, would you mind waiting here for them while I go and examine some of the other fragments."

"I'd love to" I smiled and took his seat as he walked over to the fragments.

10 minutes passed and the file finally appeared on the screen. I opened it and began to examine the images. This wasn't my field, and I honestly didn't even know what I was looking for. But even I could see this wasn't the same person's bones.

"Zack, come over here" I called and waved him over.

"Yes?" He asked as he leaned over resting his hand on the desk so his head was level with mine and the computer screen.

"Look at this. I'm not an expert or anything, but this can't be the same guys bones right?"

He looked at the screen for a minute and sighed. "Yes. Our victim had a non malignant tumor. A tumor that sized definitely would have been apparent in Max Kane's scans. Even this far back. I'll call Dr. Brennan and tell her the news." Great that's just what I needed.

* * *

An hour later Booth and Brennan were back at the lab.

"We should send out a description of the chondroma to area hospitals. See if it leads to any missing patients." Brennan addressed the group. Angela, Zack, Hodgins and I were all gathered around a table while Booth leaned over the railing of the platform. He was obviously agitated that we didn't have any clue to the victims identity.

"Yeah, we can do that." He looked directly at Zack "List the pertinence."

"Me? Are you talking directly to me?" Zack asked, taken aback a bit.

"Yeah, you can tell because my eyes are looking at you. My mouth is aimed in your direction." Great now he was acknowledging him, but he was just being openly rude. This isn't actually what I meant when I said don't be a dick.

"But what about our guy thing? If you're speaking to me, then does this mean I'm not on the team?" Angela and Hodgins started to giggle but stopped when I glared at them. Zack obviously sounded concerned about his position with Booth.

"Zack, lets concentrate on the work." Dr. Brennan replied to him calmly. I could tell she felt the same about Booth's treatment toward Zack. I assume she probably said something to him as well. I doubt what I had to say had much impact on him at all.

"Pertinence..." Zack focused again.

"Pertinence." Boothe repeated with a mocking tone. Damn this guy was a dick.

"The victim died. We...we don't know how. He was then frozen, dismembered with a Heidal carving knife, and pushed through a black mantis 1200 wood chipper." He repeated the facts.

"The wood chipper that Ray Sparks had access to."

"But Ray Sparks was in jail." Zack added again.

"Sparks was in jail when Max Kane disappeared." Hodgins corrected.

"But our victim isn't Max Kane." I added, finally seeing where they were going.

"Well who else would Ray Sparks have motive to kill?" Angela asked.

"The victim is a middle aged male-" Zack was cut off by the agent.

"His brother." Booth finally figured out.

"What motive?" Hodgins asked.

"They both inherited the house." He began to walk out before looking back at us "Okay, you guys, you look at that tumor and Bones and I will go talk to Sparks."

"While you're there look for a freezer." I yelled toward the agent.

"Why"

"Because the victim was frozen. And he had polyurethane under his nails. Polyurethane is commonly used in large freezers."

"Got it" The agent said with a thumbs up before leaving.

* * *

At the end of the day we all went out to that Chinese place for a celebratory dinner.

Brennan and Booth were seated up on the bar, as always, but Hodgins, Angela, Zack and I were all seated having a fun time eating our dinner. It was fun, it was kind of like a double date. I know Angela would be mortified to hear me say that. But I don't know what it is about her and Hodgins, but I just know they would make a fantastic couple.

Suddenly Brennan walked up to our booth.

"Hey sweetie, I thought Zack said you weren't staying. We already ordered but I'm sure we can get them ba-" Angela greeted.

"Oh, no I'm not staying. I just wanted to come over and pull Catherine for a minute."

I looked up at her confused at the mention of my name "Umm, sure.." I said hesitantly standing up from my seat.

We walked out of ear range of the group and she began talking. "Booth told me what you said to him."

Crap am I seriously about to get in trouble for telling him to stop being a douche. "Oh, that.. Look I can explai-"

"No need. I understand. I told him the same thing."

"Oh, you did? So what's this about?"

"I know he can seem." She paused trying to find the words

"Like a neanderthal" I filled in.

"Well. Yes. But I promise he's not as bad as he seems. He really does mean the best. He acts all tough and macho, but he does care about all of us in the lab. My people are his people. He might sound insensitive but he does mean the best. At first I didn't like his thing with Zack either, but he explained it and I get it now. It makes Zack feel important, so just let them have that. And if you tried to give him a break I'm sure you'd see he's not as bad of a guy as you think."

"Okay" I sighed. I guess she had a point. I did kind of jump on his throat without giving him a second thought.

"Now, I'll see you tomorrow at the lab."

"See you tomorrow." I smiled back before going back to the booth for more fun.


	19. Two Bodies in the Lab p 1

rI walked into the lab in the morning to the smell of decaying sea salt. I've been told the smells fade after a time, but I don't see how rotted flesh and bones plus whatever was the dump site of the week was could ever seem normal.

"God, what is that smell?" I asked Hodgins as I scanned my ID walking up the platform.

"That would be our newest victim. They found him off the shore of Chesapeake Bay, and judging by the amount of algae I'd say our dudes been fish food for quite some time." He responded.

"Lovely" I replied.

"The FBI is pretty certain this is James Cugini. They're looking for evidence that could lead them to the killer." Goodman addressed all of us on the platform.

"Wow, Jimmy Cugini." Hodgins said in awe inspecting the body.

"I don't know who that is." Brennan replied, saying what I had been thinking, with that innocent tone she often used when social things were brought up.

"It's a mob boss who disappeared six years ago after his daughters dance recital." Angela informed us.

"That's awful" I replied at the mention of a daughter.

"I mean. He was a mob boss. I wouldn't cry too hard over him" Hodgins said

"He had a daughter" I replied harshly, "And I'll cry all I want for a little girl that lost her father."

Hodgins eyes widened a bit and was silent for a second. "You're right, I'm sorry." he said awkwardly before turning to look at the body again. His tone changed back to his usual light hearted one and looked at the cement blocks enclosing the skeleton's feet "Cement shoes, pretty trite."

"Why mess with the classics?" Dr. Brennan replied, enjoying this a bit too much.

"Should we really be involved in mob stuff? I mean they're really into to the whole killing thing." Hodgins pointed out worriedly.

"I can provide you with a job description if you've forgotten what we do here, Dr. Hodgins." Goodman replied with his signature authoritarian scary voice.

Brennan looked up from the feet to Zack "After you clean him up Zack, I want you to x-ray the bone for any bullet fragments. Be very careful cleaning the exit and entrance wounds. I want to recover any markings the bullet left as it passed through the bone." she ordered.

"Yeah, I can have them ready about.." Zack paused thinking for a second, doing that adorable calculating in his head thing, "eight tonight."

"Ohh, can't work tonight." she sighed "Tomorrow morning is fine." sounding annoyed.

At the mention that we might get the night off Zack looked at me with a smile and I blushed to myself.

Angela looked up from her clip board suddenly with a smile "You have a date tonight." She said excitedly.

"It's not a date, it's.. a meal." Brennan defended

"With a man?" I asked teasingly.

"Did you meet him on the website I told you about?" Angela asked.

"You're dating online?" Booth asked as he walked up the platform with another man. His tone was judgmental, just like he was about everything. I really did not like him.

Brennan and Angela went over to greet the two agents. Angela flirting up a storm at the introduction of a new man.

I was bent over the body scrapping algae samples when Zack walked over to stand next to me. He was so close his legs brushed against mine and I stood up to meet his eye.

"Can I help you?" I asked lightly with a smirk.

He turned around to lean against the examination table and face me. "Did you hear that? We get the night off." He spoke quietly as to not disturb the other conversations going on around the room.

"I did hear." I smiled at him "I heard Dr. Brennan say that you didn't have deadline for your work tonight, which means you might end up getting some free time." he smiled and I paused. "But guess who's boss doesn't have a date tonight, and does have to continue to work the case."

He frowned as he realized what I meant and suddenly Hodgins was standing in front of Zack to my left and we both turned to look at him.

"Okay so 1, you guys are terrible at whispering. And 2, take the night off it's fine." he rolled his eyes and continued "one of us should have a good time" he mumbled to himself.

I smiled with excitement. "Really! Thank you!" He smiled and winked at Zack before walking away.

Zack leaned back down toward me with a smile about to speak before being cut off by Hodgins yelling behind him as he walked. "I said the night. It's still morning, get back to work love birds."

At his raised voice Brennan, Angela, both the Agents, and a couple other people throughout the room turned their glance to us. Zack and I blushed simultaneously and Zack quickly left my side walking over to do his own work.

Angela smiled at me and I looked back at the bones. Brennan and the agents made their way over to the bones and continued to talk. Apparently they were still on the topic of Dr. Brennan online dating.

"You know, what ever happened to seeing someone across a crowded room, eyes meeting, that old black magic gets you in its spell..." Agent Booth asked his partner

"There's no such thing as magic." Brennan replied cynically.

"I don't know, you should have seen when Catherine and Zack met. That was some pretty adorable movie magic stuff right there."

I blushed at them mention of my name.

"See Bones, even squints like Zack can meet people in real life. I'm sure you have no problem meeting people, why go online?"

At the mention of Zack's name I looked up to glare at him. What did he mean by 'Squints like Zack'. Zack is a great guy. He doesn't even know him. What right does he have to judge him.

Booth noticed my glaring and his smile faded. I walked away abruptly not wanting to listen to him speak anymore. He was annoying me and I had enough samples anyway.

* * *

I felt a tap on my shoulder and I turned around from looking at my mass spectrometer results.

Angela was facing me with a worried frown and her arms crossed.

"What?" I asked confused at her concerned posture.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

"Yeah? why wouldn't I be?"

"You left in a hurry when we walked over to the table earlier. Was it what I said about you and Zack? Because I'm sorry if that wasn't my place to bring up." She asked worriedly.

"Oh no, no no no, it wasn't you. You're completely fine." I calmed her.

"Really?"

"Definitely. No it wasn't you it was Booth. You're fine."

"Really? What's wrong with Booth?" She asked. Apparently for how perceptive she was she still hadn't caught on about my annoyance at him.

"It's.., it's nothing" I paused, deciding on weather I should share or not. "It's just. I know Brennan told me to give him a chance because he's really not that bad of a guy. But I don't care. He's a jerk. And what the hell was with that 'even squints like Zack' comment. What's so wrong with Zack. What is his problem with Zack." I stopped and took a breath. "I'm rambling. I'm sorry"

Angela laughed and looked back at me, "Oh sweetie really? That's why you got so upset? Because he was mean to Zack? Well that's adorable"

I raised my eyebrow, looking at her questionably.

"You really don't need to be worried. He doesn't mean anything by it. That's just how he is."

"Well he's kind of a dick" I replied still angry but calmed down.

She laughed again. "You're so adorable when you're being protective"

I didn't find it as funny as she did.

"Well you have nothing to worry about this week. That other Agent Booth brought is taking over the Cugini case. Booth took Brennan to work on a different case of a young girl"


	20. Two Bodies in the Lab p 2

**AN:** Wow, you guys must be getting tired of these. So, in honor of our 20th chapter of you all putting up with my rambling, I have some exciting news! So, in case you haven't heard. Which you haven't. I've made an Instagram account! Just to post pictures and updates of stories I'm writing. Another reason is so that you guys who can't see my cover art for this story on line, whether because you're reading on you phone or what ever reason. Now you can see it. You don't even have to follow if you don't want. But I do ask that you go check it out. I'd really appreciate it.

Also just because I like to remind you guys sometimes, I sadly do not own Bones or it's characters. Although I wish I did. Let me just say there would be some drastic changes. *cough, Zack would be the main character, cough* *cough, Vincent Nigel Murray would be his intern and never die, cough* *cough, Angela and Hodgins never would have broken up because that is the stupidest story line ever, besides the Zack and the Gormogon story line which is so much worse, cough* *cough, I guess that's enough coughing, cough*. Man I should really get that cold checked out.

Also I realize the beginning of this chapter seems random and out of place. But I wanted to get away from the technical and straight script writing for a bit. And just have some fun writing something original straight from my head. Now I guess I'll leave you alone, and you can rejoin the story again.

* * *

Hours past and it was finally 7, meaning it was night, and Zack and I could leave for our night off! I left my coat in my locker then went to find Zack on the platform. He was still working on cleaning the cuts on the skull. He looked up at me at the sound of my shoes clanging against the metal stairs up the platform.

"You ready to go?" I asked as I finally walked up across the table from him.

"Well, not all of the cuts are completely clean." He started.

"Yeah, but you've been working on them for hours. Plus Brennan said she didn't need it done by tonight." I smiled and came up beside him, hooking my arm through his getting a smile back. "And besides, Jack gave me the night off specifically so we could hang out."

He sighed and smiled. "I suppose I can just come in a little earlier tomorrow and finish before Dr. Brennan comes in."

"That's more like it!" lately it seemed like either I was working all night or Zack was, but we hadn't gotten to just hang out and chill at night in over two weeks.

Zack took his gloves off and placed his arm over my shoulder as we turned to leave. We were nearly to the door when we were stopped by the sound of Angela and Hodgins awing behind us. We turned, still linked side by side, to see Angela and Hodgins standing in the door way of her office.

"What?" Zack asked.

"Nothing you guys are just too cute" Angela replied, making me roll my eyes.

"So any big plans for your night off?" Hodgins inquired copying Angela's tone.

"Yeah, any fancy dinner plans? Maybe a nice restaurant?"

"Nope. We're going back to my place" Angela's eyes widened with approval and I could tell she was about to make a comment. 'to watch Harry Potter" I added abruptly and she frowned.

"Really? That's it?" She furrowed her brow in disappointment and confusion.

"Yeah, Zack's never seen them can you believe it?" I chimed again. I didn't understand how someone as nerdy as Zack couldn't have seen Harry Potter. I mean, I know he's more a science / sci-fi nerd. But still.

"I still don't understand why you like them so much. Magic isn't real, and it's impractical to.."

I cut him off before he could start on one of his adorable pragmatic rants. "It's whimsical and fun and you love it. Now be quiet with your little Ravenclaw pragmatical rant."

He paused before conceding "It is quite enjoyable"

"Ravenclaw?" Hodgins asked.

"It's a house in Harry Potter." I responded as if it were obvious. Because to be honest, it should be obvious.

"House?" Angela repeated Hodgins' confusion.

I rolled my eyes. "Seriously? Non of you?" they all stared at me blankly. "In Harry Potter all of the students are sorted into houses based on their personality traits. Ravenclaw's are logical and creative. Gryffindors are brave and adventurous. Hufflepuffs are kind and loyal. And Slytherins are ambitious and cunning."

"So what houses are we in?" Angela asked now filled with intrigue.

"You guys? I'm not sure." I paused thinking for a second. "Well Zack is definitely a Ravenclaw. And I'm a Hufflepuff." I looked over at the two. "I'mma call you too Ravenpuffs, because I'm honestly not sure." I laughed.

"Ravenpuffs?" They asked in unison.

"Somewhere between a Ravenclaw and a Hufflepuff. You're both Ravenclaws in a way, because Hodgins you always love to learn new things, and Angela you're creative." I paused as they continued to look at me confused. "But you're both kind and would do any thing for the people you care about. Making you loyal. Making you Hufflepuffs."

They both stared at me. "That sounds so complicated." Angela answered blankly.

"It really isn't" I laughed.

"We better get going" Zack suddenly joined the conversation and I turned to him with a smile.

All of a sudden Angela got a call and picked up her phone. She turned to take the call and Zack and I continued to walk toward the door.

"Oh my god what!?" Angela suddenly raised her voice into the phone and we stopped walking again. "Is she okay?" Her tone was worried and we quickly all gathered around her trying to hear the call. " Yeah, yeah, no we'll be here."

She hung up and looked at us with a scared impression. "Brennan got shot at."

"What?" Hodgins took up her tone.

"Is she okay?" I asked.

"Yeah, she didn't get hit. She's on her way over right now though. Booth told me she left the crime scene so she might be a bit on edge."

We all walked back up to the platform and got back to work. There goes my night off I guess.

* * *

Brennan entered the lab and immediately walked onto the platform getting to work. She was walking with a purpose and her face looked determined. I'd fell bad that she just got shot at, but I was too scared of her.

"Get out of the way. Woman with a mission" I whispered to Zack walking toward the edge of the platform.

I don't know if she heard what I said, but she definitely saw me whisper something because the look she was giving me right now could have cut glass.

* * *

"I need enlargements of the super orbital notch." Dr. Brennan said to Zack as we all gathered around the body. "Have you examined the dogs' excrement." She continued her fast paced orders to Hodgins.

"I'm running the fecal flotation now." I responded quickly

"Bet you don't get to say that a lot." Hodgins laughed nudging me with his elbow. Quickly stopping when Brennan shot him a look of seriousness.

"Check for fibers the FBI might have missed as well."

"Got it" I responded, trying to be helpful.

"You've already told him, twice. Are you sure you don't want a drink?" Angela responded, trying to calm her down.

"You know it wouldn't be difficult to someone to encode a secure data strip implant it on an ID card with a correct digitally encoded authentication data and sneak in here." Zack added making us all look at him scared.

"Hey paranoid theories are my thing" Hodgins responded lightly slapping Zack's arm.

"Are you two going to help or not?" Brennan interrupted the interaction coldly again.

"You know Booth's pissed that you came here. He had more questions for you at the scene." Angela tried to take Brennan's attention away from the boys again.

"He just doesn't want to come here because he has to park in the structure." She brushed off the comment, walking over to the skull Zack had been cleaning earlier. I could tell she looked annoyed and right before I could try and walk away she yelled across the platform. "Zack these bullet holes haven't been cleaned."

"I worked on them for hours, Dr. Brennan." Zack assured, walking over to her fastly.

"Then that wasn't long enough was it?" She answered angrier then before.

"Um, that's my fault. Sorry doctor. He wanted to continue working but I told him he could finish it tomorrow, so we could leave for our n-" I tried to defend him but she cut me off growing angrier by the second.

"It's not your fault Catherine. Zack is an adult and he should have known better and made his own decisions." She paused looking behind us to Hodgins, who I hoped would try and calm her. Suddenly her tone changed and she looked at us both sympathetically. "I'm sorry but... You take a sinus probe, you put a little cotton swab on the end of it. You dip it in water and you dab it inside the wound until it's clean." She said so as she showed us. "The Sistine Chapel took thirteen years to clean properly."

"I didn't think we had that kind of time." Zack responded timidly and I could tell she was about to snipe back but we were interrupted by Booth yelling as he entered the lab and walked up the platform.

"Bones! What the hell are you doing?"

At his entrance I stopped paying attention to the pair. I had no interest in listening to their little "lover's quarrel".

I left Zack who was working at cleaning the skull and went to check on the fecal flotation. God that really was a disgusting word.


	21. Two Bodies in the Lab p 3

**AN:** Can I just please say how happy it makes me when you guys leave comments. The only reason I even write this is because I love it. If I didn't love it, I wouldn't do it. So I cannot tell you how happy it makes me that other people love it too. Even critical comments make me happy. Any comments from you guys really do make my day. :)

Also can I just say that I am re watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer right now and that is just a totally different side to David Boreanez that is so funny. Also I tried something new with the character, that I honestly didn't know that's where I was going until I started writing the scene. So tell me what you guys think. I'm not sure how I feel about it yet, but I think I like it.

* * *

Hours passed and it was nearing midnight. People were coming and going from the lab, I however had been working non stop. I had taken a quick 30 minute nap in Angela's office a little bit ago. But it was catching up to me. I was nodding off over a tray of particulates I was looking at under a microscope, when Booth, Bones, and Zack all walked up the platform.

"Nice work Zack." Brennan said looking over the bones on the slab. Placing the skull under the camera monitor she pointed to the breaks for Booth "You can see some of the markings left on the bone where the bullet passed through."

"I can?" Booth replied with his usual tone of ignorance.

"Yes." she continued "Here and here on the outer compact brow. Do you think you could use a computer to recreate the complete imprint the bullet left?" She said now talking to Angela.

"I can tray, I don't know if I have enough here to work with."

"What are you getting at?" Booth asked not getting what Brennan was asking.

"Well, after it's discharged every bullet has a distinct pattern etched into it from the barrel of the gun, right?"

"Yeah"

"That same pattern would be etched into the bone as it passes through. If we can recover that pattern, we can reverse engineer the bullet. BOOTH: Then you'd be able to tell which weapon was used, its make, model...the whole shebang."

At the mention of this new theory I walked over and joined the conversation. "I've never heard of that technique." I interjected.

"It's a theory I've been working on. I thought this would be a good time to test it." Brennan answered looking proud of herself.

"Great. Knock yourself out." Booth responded rolling his eyes before looking to Zack. "Alright, anything more about the girl?"

Zack walked over to the other victim. "The knife marks were made by a non-serrated blade consistent with a pocket knife like this one." he lifted a small pocket knife "I found additional knife marks on C-5 indicating that the throat was slashed."

"What about her eyes?" Booth asked again.

"The grooving in the eye sockets doesn't match anything on the knife." he repeated plainly.

"So you have no idea" he asked harshly?

"Well," Zack stuttered a bit and I stepped forward ready to intervene when he spoke up. "I'm figuring it out."

Booth rolled his eyes and started to walk away "And Hodgins is playing with dog poop so everyone's got something to do." He looked at Dr. Brennan "Let's go."

"What?" Brennan responded.

"Kenton is putting together everything he's got on Cugini's disappearance. We're done here."

"But, I'm probably more valuable here." she protested.

"No, you're definitely more valuable alive. Alright? I'm not leaving you alone. Come on." Brennan reluctantly began to follow him.

"Wait" Zack interrupted and they turned around to look back at us, "If it's so dangerous here why are you leaving us?" he looked at the agent confused.

Booth walks back to us and punched Zack lightly on the arm "Big strong guy like you, huh? You'll be able to take care of yourself."

Zack grimaced and grabbed his arm "ow"

Booth began to chuckle, but then he made eye contact with the intense death glare I was giving him and stopped. "Okay" he turned toward Dr. Brennan and the door "lets go" and they left.

* * *

( **AN:** I know this chapter doesn't exactly follow to chronology of the episode. But whatever, it's fine.)

Finally it was 3 o'clock in the morning and I had gotten back to my apartment. Today had been one of the most exhausting days of my life. I got ready for bed and laid down. I had barely been asleep for 30 minutes when suddenly I heard my phone ring in the corner. Fuck no. I am fucking sleeping. They cannot make me get up right now. I ignored it and slept through the ringing. It can wait for 4 hours of sleep. I've earned 4 hours of sleep.

At 7 my alarm rang and I begrudgingly got up. My eye's were still hazy from fatigue but I got up and picked up my phone from my dresser on the opposite side of my room. 6 missed calls from Angela and 15 tests. 3 from Hodgins and 2 texts. 4 calls and 10 texts from Zack. Shit what happened? I opened my text messages and scrolled to the top of Zacks.

"Are you at the lab yet?"

"Hodgins and I are driving in, do you need a ride?"

"Where are you?"

"Angela told you about the explosion right?"

"Are you still sleeping?"

"There was an explosion at Brennan's apartment, Booth got hurt."

"He's in the hospital."

shit.

I dropped my phone and ran to put clothes on, not bothering to read the rest of the texts.

Running out the door I threw my hair up into a pony tail and texted Angela, Hodgins, and Zack individually "I just woke up, I'm heading in now."

* * *

I walked into the lab and walked straight to Angela's office.

Her eye's widened as she rushed over to me "Where have you been?"

"I was sleeping. I'm so sorry. What happened? Is everyone okay?"

"Booth's in the hospital, but he's okay" at her words I let out a breath I hadn't even realized I'd been holding in. He's not my favorite person, but I really didn't want him to die. "There was a bomb in Brennan's fridge and when Booth opened a cabinet it went off."

I sighed and sat down on the couch catching my head in my hands. I inhaled sharply and realized tears were falling.

"Honey what's wrong?"

I immediately wiped my hands over my eyes and stood up, I didn't even know what I was crying about. "It's nothing. Is Dr. Brennan okay?"

"Yeah she's at the hospital with Booth." she looked at me again with concern "Are you sure you're okay?"

"Yeah, I'm just tired. And you'know it's just. It's a lot first thing in the morning. I'm fine." she looked into my eyes "It's fine"

"Well then why don't you tell you'r face that?" she responded sympathetically wiping another tear from my cheek.

I smiled and walked out of the room onto the platform to find Hodgins.

I passed Zack and he grabbed my arm. "You made it, where were you?"

"I was sleeping. I didn't see the messages." I responded and he nodded. Then he looked at my face and looked at me with concern.

"Are you alright? You look like you've been crying"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Do you know where Hodgins is?"

"Over there" he pointed still looking at me with concern as I walked away.

I hate crying in public. My face gets all red and everyone notices.

I walked to Hodgins at the other end of the room.

"Sorry I'm late. What do you want me to do?"

He turned to face me "We've got the bomb parts her- have you been crying?"

"Oh my god will everyone just shut up about the crying" I snapped. I guess I'm a bit on edge. Hodgins looked at me shocked for a moment. "Now can we please get to work?"

"um yeah, work" he looked at me hesitantly before continuing. "So like I was saying we have the bomb parts here. I'm trying to figure out what kind of agents were used to ignite it bec-"

"Because that can tell us where and by who it was made. Yup got it." I grabbed the tray of parts from him nd walked away to get to work.


	22. Two Bodies in the Lab p 4

I had been working on the bomb fragments for over an hour, but I was getting no where. It was a completely average bomb. Straight from an instruction manual from google. There was no signature. Not even any identifying shrapnel. Nothing.

Just then Angela walked in, "Hey any luck with the bomb?"

"It's completely general. Anyone could have made this. Not even a smart anyone. Just anyone with access to the internet and half a brain." I replied.

"Well that's no good."

"Tell me about it." I sighed. "So what's up?"

"We've made a schedule of people to visit Booth at the hospital. I put you and Zack at the same time. I figured you too usually take your breaks at the same time. And if you two are there Hodgins and Brennan will both be here, and they can live without interns for an hour."

"Thanks. But you really din't have to do that."

"Honestly I didn't at first, but Zack asked me if I could. He didn't want to go see Booth alone."

I nodded knowing exactly why, "I wonder why that could be?" I said sarcastically rolling my eyes.

"Okay down girl" she laughed, "I see you've calmed down from earlier."she said referencing my crying from earlier.

"Okay, I was tired earlier. And.."I paused, "I don't deal with trauma stuff well."

She continued to laugh. "Well anyways you and Zack are up in an hour. Brennan should be back in about 30."

"Thanks" I responded and looked back at my work.

* * *

Zack and I entered the hospital and made our way up to Booth room.

Finally we reached his door and Zack turned to me "I'm thirsty. Do you want a drink."

I looked at him confused "What?"

"Beverages. Don't you think we should get some? What if Booths thirsty?"

"They keep him well supplied on water, and water's the only thing he can drink. He's okay on beverages."

"Oh right" He replied quietly.

"What is it? Why don't you want to go in?" I asked him seriously.

"I don't know, Booth just makes me uncomfortable when Dr. Brennan's not around."

"Why?"

"I've just never actually talked to him one on one. I don't even usually talk to him in a group. He ignores me, it's our 'guy thing'."

"Well then it's a good thing you're not one on one. I'm here." I smiled up at him and kissed his check lightly. "Now let's go inside." I started to turn.

"I'll be in in a moment, I'll just get us some soda's." and with that he turned in the opposite direction and walked away.

I rolled my eyes, okay. So I guess I'm doing this alone. I walked into the room and Booth looked over to make eye contact with me.

"Hey it's you. So'd they send you to kick me while I'm down" he joked.

I smiled at his attempt and entered the room. "No we're on a schedule. Every hour you get a new nerd to talk to."

"Ahh that explains it."

I paused and let the awkward silence sink in for a moment. "Look I just wanted to say." I paused and looked down for a moment before looking back at him. "I'm sorry. I guess I've been a little"

He interrupted me "unfair".

I looked at him with a raised eyebrow, "No I think I've been pretty. Now if you would have let me finish I was going to say rude. Look I'm not going to lie, you're not my favorite person in the world. But I didn't want you to get blown up." I paused, "I would be sad if you died."

He looked at me seriously for a moment "Thank you". Then his tone changed "So when is lover boy scheduled anyway?"

"Right now actually, we came together. He's just getting some drinks."

"Ahh" he responded.

We were silent again.

"Do you want to know why he's getting drinks?"

"I mean, not really. I'm assuming cause he's thirsty."

"It's because he doesn't want to be alone with you."

"What?" he looked confused, and if I didn't know any better I'd say a little hurt. "But you're here."

"He said he doesn't know how to talk to you."

"Oh we're back on this again?" he sounded annoyed but I didn't care.

"Yes, Zack wants your approval so much. Can't you just give him that?"

I could tell he was a bout to retort with something but just then Zack walked into the room with two bottled Mountain Dews and handed me one.

Booth looked at me and I could tell for a second there was a moment of understanding between us and he looked over to Zack with a large smile.

"Hey there buddy great to see you." He held out his arm for a fist bump and Zack looked at him hesitantly before stepping forward.

"Hi" He responded wearily as he copied the agents movements then moved backwards.

We exchanged pleasantries for the rest of the hour and a half we were scheduled for and time flew by. Zack and I actually talked and had a civil normal conversation with Booth. We talked about the accident, and work. Then we actually talked about normal things, things friends would talk about. Booth told us cute stories about Parker and Zack related them to stories he had of younger cousins, nephews, and nieces. It was almost nice.

I looked down at my watch. "Hey well hate to cut this short but we have to get back to the lab." I smiled as we finished out the conversation. "Hope you feel better" I said as Zack and I started head toward the door.

"Yeah thank's for coming in guys" he smiled.

"Don't mention it. Hodgins should be over by the end of the hour" I stated finally as we exited the room.

We walked a bit down the hallway and I grabbed onto Zack's hand and looked at him "See that really wasn't that bad."

"He was surprisingly pleasant and conversational. You were right."

"As I usually am" I smiled up at him and we continued to walk out of the hospital.

* * *

Zack and I were working at the lab cataloging key and eye socket wounds when we heard the news. Turns out Kenton was really the killer, and he had captured Brennan. Hodgins and Booth had saved her and she was okay.

To quote Hodgins it was "pretty bitchin".

* * *

 **AN:** sorry about how short this chapter is. I just really wanted to finish this episode and honestly the only reason I even wrote this episode was because I wanted that scene between Catherine and Booth at the hospital. Things are far from hunky dory best friends between the two. But maybe now she won't want to strangle him every time he walks into a room. I will also be changing more plots from here on out. Booth will actually talk to Zack, and not be a totla douche every time he talks to the "Squints".


	23. My Kind of Perfect

**A/N:** Hey guys, I'm back! It's been 14 days over a year since I last updated. Which is 14 days over the longest time I said it would take before I updated again. I didn't know how long it would take but I assumed it would take less then a year for me to get back into writing. I was wrong. But I'm back now, so hooray! I just started to re watch the first season and I remembered how adorable Zack was and I'm obsessed again. I also realized I just really wasn't feeling the episode I was trying to write in. So I just skipped it. But I really do think I'll be updating more now. I just graduated and I'm not going to school next year so I have all the free time in the world for writing and I'm excited to see what this new chapter of my life brings me. Because I know you guys have been waiting for so long, here's a nice little fluffy chapter to make up for it. Hope you like it.

* * *

-A FEW WEEKS LATER-

I woke up to the feeling of something moving under my head.

"Catherine, wake up" Zack's voice sounded softly in the corner of my mind but my brain didn't want to listen to it. "Catherine" His voice repeated and I felt his shoulder moving more.

I moved my eyes to open even though they really didn't want to.

"What" My voice was groggy and I moved my head to look up at him, still resting it on his shoulder.

"It's late. I should really get going. We still have a lot of work to do on the Richmond case tomorrow morning." I knew he was right but I didn't even want to get up from where I was on the couch (if I'm being honest mostly in his lap), let alone get up get in the car drive him home then come home myself. We really needed to rethink this whole late night movies at my place thing if he's not going to be able to drive himself home and he can't stay here.

Or could he? I mean, we wouldn't do anything. I wasn't ready for anything more then what we've been doing and it was way too late and I was much to tired to think to even think of doing anything other then sleeping. But we had been dating for almost two months, now and I don't think that's too much of a step to ask if he would want to spend the night.

"Hello?" Zack spoke up.

"Sorry, I was thinking." I responded, looking back up at him, "What would you think about staying the night."

I could tell I shocked him with my suggestion because he just looked at me stunned for a moment.

"You don't have to if you don't want to, I mean" I started to get up and he grabbed my waist pulling me closer to him.

"No, I definitely want to."

I laughed. "Ok, then let's go to sleep."

We moved off of the couch and to my bedroom. Once inside I grabbed a tank top and a pair of fluffy pants from my dressed and walked into my bathroom to change. When I came back in Zack was standing in his graphic t-shirt and boxer shorts awkwardly. The moonlight from my window illuminated his face in my dark apartment. I took a second to just look at him. I was so lucky. 3 months ago I was a broke college student living at home, a loner. Now, I'm still a broke college student. But I have one of the best jobs I could ever ask for with amazing co-workers, which would be enough. But to top it all off I have the most amazing guy I could ever dream of in front of me, in my bedroom, about to go to sleep with me. I could burst with contentedness. I mean happiness too. But I've been happy before, never this happy, but happy. But I've always struggled with being content in my life. There's always been one little thing I thought I could fix in my life. But right now there was nothing. Everything was perfect. I was perfectly content and that made me happier then anything.

"What?" Zack asked. He finally noticed I had just been standing starring at him for a minute.

"Nothing." I paused. "I'm just happy." He smiled and I walked forward and kissed him. I meant to just give him a peck but I got a little carried away. He wrapped his arms around my waist and I grabbed his head pulling it closer to mine and running my fingers through his hair. He was perfect, this was perfect. The kiss settled and we separated, his arms still around my waist and my arms around his neck and our torsos leaning away from each other. Just like we had done the first time we saw each other after Christmas. When he wanted to comfort me.

"You're perfect you know that" Zack spoke as we both smiled and starred into the others eyes.

"I was just about to say the same thing about you Mr. Addy." We both smiled at each other again and I moved out from his grasp grabbing his hand with mine and leading him to the bed. "But maybe we're both delirious from sleep deprivation."

We got under the covers and I turned my back to Zack and wrapped his arm over me so we were comfortably spooning. I felt his body against mine, warm and comforting, and our hands intertwined in front of me. I fell asleep almost instantly.

The next morning I woke up and turned around to face the man in my bed. I've never slept with a man in my bed before, it was a weird thought. But I was okay with it. When I turned around Zack was already awake and looking down at me.

"Good morning" I said coyly looking up at him from my pillow.

"Good morning" He spoke sweetly and reached over moving a hair from the side of my face. "You're cute when you sleep you know."

"Well you're cute when you're awake." I said leaning forward and giving him a quick peck. "Probably when you sleep too but I wouldn't know because I was sleeping" I laughed and began to get up from the bed.

Zack moved to the edge of the bed behind me. Right as I got my footing on the floor I felt his arms reach around my waist and pull me back. I fell down onto his lap and leaned back against him. I turned my head to look at him and he kissed me. It was short and sweet but he was still strong and passionate. I leaned back from the kiss and looked at him.

"I could get used to this whole morning thing" My face couldn't stop from forming a half smile while I talked. I got up from the bed and headed to my closet.

"I'd like it if you did." He spoke behind me.

"And what is that supposed to mean?" I laughed and turned my head back to look at him while my body still faced the closet shuffling through clothes on hangers.

"It means that this was nice. I enjoyed waking up beside you. I enjoy being with you. So if you getting used to it, means I could wake up next to you more. Then I would like it if you did get used to it." His tone was simple and straightforward, but I heard the kindness and sincerity in it.

It took some time to get Zack but once I did, nothing he does is weird. Nothing he says is odd, or out of place. People say he's strange, or robotic. But he isn't, not really. He can be smooth or he can be rigid, but he was always Zack. My Zack. He is funny, and charming, and caring, and the smartest person I've ever met, and yet somehow also always confused. I wouldn't have him any other way. To me he really was perfect.  
"I'd like that too" I gave him a peck on the cheek as he walked past me to the living room. He had gotten dressed while I was staring at my closet.

I grabbed a dark red tank top blouse and through it on with a pair of jeans. I brushed my hair, put on a small amount of makeup and joined Zack in the kitchen.

He was eating a bowl of cheerios. I grabbed the box of Honey Bunches of Oats and cut up some strawberries for my bowl. I sat across the table top and looked at Zack as we ate. We ate in silence, looking up at each other periodically and smiling, just content in the others presence.

After eating we got in my car and drove to the Jeffersonian. Zack slept, and I listened to a podcast. They were talking about alternative veterinary medicine. Every once in a while Zack would interject correcting their mistakes or saying what they were suggesting was just ridiculous.

We walked into the lab together.

"I don't know why you listen to that. It has no educational bearing." Zack chastised about the podcast as we stepped through the doors. I could see Hodgins on the platform in front of us.

"I like it."

"But why, there topics are drab and their science is spotty at best, at times just completely inaccurate."

"It's not what they're saying that I care about, the hosts are entertaining and the talking keeps my brain active and starts my day off on a nice note."

Hodgins walked to the edge of the platform. "Hey there Zackio" He nodded over to me "Catherine" before looking back to Zack. "Long night?" He questions Zack's absence from his car ride this morning.

"After the movie ended Catherine and I decided it was too late for her to drive me home so I stayed over." Zack said mater of factly. I blushed, our relationship was no secret but talking about him spending the night so openly in a work setting felt uncomfortable.

"Where's Angela?" I asked Hodgins, changing the subject.

"Not here. She left for her annual desert get away yesterday. Why anyone would want to go to the desert is beyond me." Hodgins trailed off as he turned around ranting about the desert.


End file.
